NOV    2  1916 


BR  121 

.G68 

1916 

Gordon, 

George 

Angler, 

1853- 

1929. 

Aspects  of 

mire?  ■♦-  /ar-tr 

the 

infinite 

Eet).  (3tov^t  a.  (0orUon,  £)♦  £). 


ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY. 
REVELATION   AND  THE   IDEAL. 
RELIGION   AND   MIRACLE. 
THROUGH   MAN  TO  GOD. 
ULTIMATE  CONCEPTIONS  OF  FAITH. 
THE  NEW   EPOCH   FOR  FAITH. 
THE    WITNESS  TO    IMMORTALITY    IN    LITER- 
ATURE,  PHILOSOPHY,   AND  LIFE. 
THE  CHRIST  OF  TO-DAY. 
IMMORTALITY  AND  THE   NEW  THEODICY. 
HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN   COMPANY 
Boston  and  New  York 


ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 


ASPECTS  \ 

\ 

OF   THE 

INFINITE  MYSTERY 


BY 

GEORGE  A.   GORDON 

MINISTER   OF  THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH 
BOSTON 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

1916 


COPYRIGHT,    1916,    BY   GEORGE    A.    GORDON 


ALL    RIGHTS    RESERVED 


Published  October  iqib 


TO 

THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH  AND 

CONGREGATION 

IN  WHOSE  SERVICE  I  HAVE  HAD  SO  MUCH  HAPPINESS 

I  DEDICATE  THIS  BOOK  — THE  FRUITS 

OF  THESE  LATER  YEARS  OF  REFLECTION  UPON 

THE  MYSTERY  OF  LIFE  — 

IN  GRATEFUL  ACKNOWLEDGMENT  OF 

THEIR  UNSURPASSABLE  LOYALTY 

AND  IN  DEEP,  ENDURING 

AFFECTION 


A  PERSONAL  WORD 

This  volume  is  somewhat  of  the  nature  of  a 
confession  of  faith.  While  I  am  not  aware  of 
any  contradiction  between  the  views  advanced 
here  and  the  views  presented  in  earlier  books  of 
mine,  I  am  conscious  of  new  feelings  and  a  new 
mood  of  the  spirit  toward  the  Eternal  wonder 
that  is  the  object  of  all  faith.  The  new  feelings, 
the  deeper  mood,  and  the  lengthened  experience 
have  brought,  I  fondly  imagine,  a  clearer  and 
surer  insight.  So  the  things  of  faith,  the  essen- 
tials of  Christian  belief,  appear  to  me  after  many 
years  of  serious  reflection  and  teaching. 

The  idea  that  gives  unity  to  the  volume,  is  the 
idea  of  the  good  as  the  inevitable  quest  of  the 
human  spirit.  So  the  constitution  of  man  is,  so 
it  works,  so  it  can  be  understood;  it  is  everywhere 
and  always,  inevitably,  a  quest  for  the  good. 
This  idea  pervades  the  entire  discussion;  it 
emerges  for  recognition,  in  new  connections,  in 
nearly  every  chapter.  The  idea  of  the  good  is  the 
common  possession  of  Greek  philosophy  as  rep- 
resented by  Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  the  Old  and 
the  New  Testaments;  it  is  the  possession  of  all 
great  insight  into  life.  The  idea  of  the  good  is,  I 
believe,  the  surest  clue  to  the  labyrinth  of  exist- 


Vlil  A  PERSONAL   WORD 

ence.  By  no  other  path  have  I  been  able  to  gain 
freedom,  and  maintain  hope;  in  no  other  way  am 
I  able  to  see  that  God  can  maintain  his  control, 
his  ultimate  control  over  man's  world,  and  at  the 
same  time,  respect  the  reality  of  man's  share  in 
shaping  his  own  destiny. 

During  the  last  eight  or  ten  years  I  have  given, 
each  season,  a  course  of  Friday  evening  addresses, 
illustrated  usually  by  poetic  masterpieces.  These 
courses,  with  two  exceptions,  have  been  chiefly, 
though  never  exclusively,  inspirational.  One  of 
these  two  exceptions,  was  a  series  of  addresses  on 
the  Religious  Value  of  the  Divine  Comedy;  the 
other  was  a  course  on  Aspects  of  the  Infinite 
Mystery.  Of  this  course,  given  in  the  winter  of 
1914-15,  nine  addresses  were  repeated  by  request 
of  the  people  of  the  Old  South  Church,  on  Sun- 
day mornings,  1915-16. 

When  the  series  closed  I  received  from  the 
Committees  of  the  Old  South  Church  and  the 
Old  South  Society,  the  following  request:  — 

"The  Church  Committee  of  the  Old  South 
Church,  and  the  Standing  Committee  of  the  Old 
South  Society,  having  heard  with  great  profit  the 
course  of  addresses  by  its  minister.  Reverend 
Dr.  George  A.  Gordon,  on  "Aspects  of  the  In- 
finite Mystery,"  and  being  deeply  impressed  by 
their  evident  helpfulness  to  our  congregation  and 
by  many  expressions  of  a  desire  to  possess  them 


A  PERSONAL   WORD  IX 

in  permanent  form,  request  him  to  publish  them 
in  a  volume.  We  are  persuaded  that  they  will  be 
welcomed  by  many  thoughtful  men  and  women, 
seeking  light  on  the  profoundest  problems  of 
rehgious  aspiration,  problems  illumined  by  these 
fruits  of  many  years  of  study  and  experience, 
expressed  in  untechnical  form  which  the  intelli- 
gent reader  may  readily  understand." 

To  meet  this  request  it  became  necessary  to 
write  what  had  been  spoken;  to  re-open  the  en- 
tire subject;  to  endeavor  to  discuss  it  in  a  less 
inadequate  manner.  More  than  two-thirds  of 
this  book  had  no  place  in  the  spoken  word;  the 
thoughts  that  constituted  these  addresses  have 
been  written  into  the  wider,  and  I  trust,  deeper 
treatment  of  the  great  theme. 

Part  of  Chapter  Seven  was  published  in  book- 
let form  by  The  Pilgrim  Press,  under  the  title, 
"Fealty  to  the  Ideal";  the  tenth  chapter  was 
read,  in  part,  before  the  National  Council,  Octo- 
ber, 1915.  Chapters  Eleven  and  Twelve  were 
added  to  make  the  treatment  a  little  less  incom- 
plete. The  book  is  thus  an  organization,  partly 
from  notes,  but  mainly  from  the  thoughts  that 
have  been  gathering  in  my  mind,  during  these 
later  years,  as  I  have  confronted  the  mystery  of 
existence. 

If  as  one  grows  older  one  may  not  claim  with 
the  seer  in  Campbell's  poem, 


X  A  PERSONAL   WORD 

**  'T  is  the  sunset  of  life  gives  me  mystical  lore 
And  coming  events  cast  their  shadows  before," 

one  may  claim  greater  freedom  from  conven- 
tional views,  greater  sincerity,  not  only  of  feel- 
ing, but  also  of  responsible,  perhaps,  awe-struck 
thought.  Sincerity  of  the  judgment,  the  account- 
able judgment  deepens  with  the  years,  no  less 
than  the  sincerity  of  emotion,  in  normal  human 
beings. 

Traditional  standards,  except  in  so  far  as  they 
witness  to  the  integrity  of  truth,  count  for  little 
when  a  man  is  writing  with  his  eye  upon  reality, 
and  under  the  sense  of  obligation  to  reality.  To 
be  regarded  as  conservative  or  radical,  orthodox 
or  heterodox  may  be  of  some  interest  for  youth, 
even  for  manhood;  for  one  standing  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Eternal  mystery,  and  trying  to  reflect 
something  of  its  meaning  as  life  draws  toward 
evening,  such  designations  are  of  absolutely  no 
account.  One  has  something  on  hand  infinitely 
more  serious  than  the  attempt  to  get  votes  from 
either  the  liberal  or  the  conservative  camp.  One 
feels  that  Reality  alone  is  judge,  and  that  it  will 
be  well  with  one  only  in  so  far  as  one  does  homage 
to  reality. 

The  question  often  rises.  How  does  the  great 
mystery  look  in  the  late  afternoon  of  a  laborious 
day?  Different  men  will  give  different  answers, 
and  different  readers  will  prefer  different  answers 


A  PERSONAL   WORD  XI 

to  that  question.  I  can  answer  only  for  myself. 
One  ever-memorable  day  I  sailed  through  the 
Straits  of  Messina  to  find  Mt.  -^tna  without  a 
cloud,  and  under  the  full  blaze  of  the  Sicilian 
sunshine.  The  mountain  rose,  as  our  ship  re- 
treated, into  ever  grander  forms.  In  the  afternoon 
we  had  our  last  look  at  this  wonder;  the  last  look 
was,  in  many  respects,  the  best.  The  soft  haze 
through  which  the  mountain  rose,  the  color  that 
began  to  rest  upon  it,  the  loom  of  the  great  white 
mass  as  it  watched  from  afar  the  receding 
steamer,  the  interest  that  invested  it,  after  eight 
hours  of  beholding,  flung  back  from  feeling  and 
imagination,  made  the  final  experience  the  most 
significant,  the  most  impressive.  So  it  is  nor- 
mally, I  believe,  with  the  Eternal  things  of  the 
spirit.  Youth  is  the  morning  atmosphere,  man- 
hood is  high  noon,  the  last  decade  of  working 
power  is  the  afternoon  drawing  toward  evening. 
When  health  is  sound,  the  intellect  clear,  the  op- 
portunity fortunate,  the  spirit  sincere  and  free, 
the  report  concerning  the  Infinite  wonder  is  the 
most  significant,  as  it  has  surely  the  deepest 
human  value,  when  the  long,  laborious  hours  are 
well  nigh  done.  Once  more,  in  what  may  be 
called  late  afternoon,  I  have  reviewed  the  ab- 
sorbing Mystery,  and  this  book  is  the  simple 
record  of  what  I  have  to  report. 
^    There  are  few  things  more  interesting  in  the 


xii  A  PERSONAL   WORD 

history  of  the  unshackled  intellect  than  the 
changes  in  emphasis,  mood,  perspective,  that 
time  inevitably  brings.  The  vision  of  youth  is 
greatened  while  the  sense  of  mystery  is  deepened; 
points  of  light  hitherto  unseen  come  into  view, 
the  general  plan  of  faith  abides,  but  it  abides  as 
the  witness  to  realities  that  are  framed  in  by  the 
Inscrutable.  Since  man  is  finite,  and  the  universe 
in  which  he  lives  is  infinite,  this  conclusion  of 
thought  is  reasonable,  it  is  inevitable. 

A  sobered,  purified,  residual  faith  is  the  issue 
of  the  discipline  of  time  upon  the  free  mind,  a 
faith  that  many  waters  cannot  quench,  nor 
floods  drown.  Something  has  been  found  that  is 
imperishable,  and  when  this  is  simply  told  by  one 
who  has  reflected  much  and  long,  and  who  while 
he  may  reasonably  hope  for  a  few,  cannot  count 
upon  many  years  more  of  service,  the  young  will 
listen,  and  those  not  young  will  join  them.  Such 
I  have  found  to  be  the  case. 

One  might  reasonably  generalize  this  experi- 
ence of  the  free  mind  under  the  illumination  of 
the  years;  one  might  contend  that  there  is  in 
preparation  the  residual,  the  eventual  faith  of  all 
the  serious  and  enlightened  centuries.  The  resid- 
ual, the  eventual  faith  of  a  serious  and  enlight- 
ened individual  is  an  interesting,  although  never 
more  than  a  provisional  version  of  the  racial  faith. 
The  tendency  of  the  world  of  faith  gains  reflec- 


A  PERSONAL   WOBD  xiii 

tion  in  individual  minds,  now  and  then  at  least; 
it  is  this  reflection  that  gives  point  and  solemnity 
to  Goethe's  song: 

"Heard  are  the  voices. 
Heard  are  the  sages. 
The  worlds  and  the  ages. 
Choose  well;  your  choice  is 
Brief,  and  yet  endless." 

This  residual  or  eventual  faith  is  not  less  but 
more  than  the  crude  compound  of  our  immatu- 
rity, which  issued  not  so  much  from  independent 
reflection  and  insight  as  from  an  over-burdened 
theological  memory.  This  faith  that  issues  from 
experience  is  residual  as  respects  such  crude 
compounds;  it  is  original  and  expansive  as  re- 
spects the  history  of  a  candid  and  devout  mind; 
it  is  eventual,  as  that  which  the  order  of  the  world 
gives  and  justifies,  in  the  vital  processes  of  a  reli- 
giously loyal  soul;  it  is  prophetic,  a  mere  outline  of 
light  and  fire  under  the  deep  shadow  of  retreating 
night,  of  the  new  and  vaster  day.  The  unchang- 
ing order  of  the  Universe  works  changes  in  every 
open  mind;  and  as  one  reviews  these  changes,  and 
revisits  the  Unchanging,  a  touch  of  pathos,  a 
sense  of  wonder  and  mystery,  surely  is  not  incon- 
sistent with  a  confident  and  happy  outlook. 
Essentially,  this  is  the  thought  that  moves  one 
so  deeply,  that  seems  so  true  to  life  in  "Yarrow 
Revisited," 


XIV  A  PERSONAL   WOBD 

"And  if,  as  Yarrow,  through  the  woods 
And  down  the  meadow  ranging. 
Did  meet  us  with  unaltered  face. 
Though  we  were  changed  and  changing; 
If,  then,  some  natural  shadows  spread 
Our  inward  prospect  over. 
The  soul's  deep  valley  was  not  slow 
Its  brightness  to  recover." 

George  A.  Gordon. 

Ou>  South  Parsonage 
May  6, 1916. 


CONTENTS 

I.  The  Meaning  of  the  Title    ....      1 
II.  The  Good  as  the  Path  to  God  ...        23 

III.  Personality  in  God 51 

IV.  Fatherhood  in  God 82 

V.  Man  the  Host  of  the  Infinite      .        .        .  110 

VI.  The  Historic  Reality  of  Jesus  .        .       134 

VII.  Man  and  the  Moral  Ideal     ....  172 

VIII.  The  Reality  of  Inspiration       .        .        .       203 

IX.  The  Dualism  in  Man 230 

X.  Moral  Evil  and  Racial  Hope    .        .        .       255 

XL  The  Mystery  of  Redemption  .        .        .  277 

XII.  The  Mystery  of  the  End  ....       305 

Index S45 


ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE 
MYSTERY 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  MEANING   OF   THE   TITLE 

I 

There  were  three  ways  of  crossing  the  beauti- 
ful river  that  flows  through  the  Scottish  county 
in  which  I  was  born  and  in  which  I  spent  my  boy- 
hood; a  river  whose  murmur  I  can  hear  across 
the  distance  of  more  than  five  and  forty  years. 
The  first  way  was  by  the  bridge,  and  while  that 
stood  solid  and  sure  any  fool  could  cross  the  river; 
many  did,  and  some  wise  men,  too.  The  second 
way  was  by  the  ferry  and  the  ford;  I  class  them 
as  one  because  of  their  similarity.  One  took 
one's  place  in  the  boat  and  by  slightly  pulling 
the  rope  which  stretched  from  this  bank  to  that, 
attached  firmly  to  a  pole  on  either  side,  one  was 
in  due  time  safely  landed;  by  guiding  the  horse 
or  by  letting  the  horse  guide  himself  the  river 
was  forded.  The  third  way  was  by  stepping 
stones;  these  happened  to  be  irregular  and  some 
distance  apart,  and  the  water  flowed  with  con- 
siderable tumult  between  them,  and  the  stones 
were  apt  to  be  wet  and  slippery;  here  there  was 


2     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEET 

risk;  here  courage,  agility,  skill,  self-reliance, 
daring  were  needed;  here  success,  when  it  came, 
was  an  achievement;  when  one  got  over  the 
river  in  this  way  there  was  a  distinct  glow  of 
satisfaction. 

There  are  three  ways  of  crossing  the  mysteri- 
ous river  of  time.  There  is  the  bridge  of  dogmatic 
belief;  the  creeds  say  so,  the  catechism  says  so, 
Augustine  and  Calvin  say  so,  Edwards  and  the 
New  England  theologians  say  so.  If  we  are  satis- 
fied with  a  second-hand  faith,  if  we  forego  the 
privilege  of  looking  reality  in  the  face  and  laying 
our  hand  upon  it,  if  we  are  willing  to  substitute 
the  thinking  of  other  minds  and  other  ages  for 
our  own,  we  may  pass  happily  over  this  bridge. 
But  one  must  not  question.  One  must  go  as  the 
unthinking  cattle  go  over  the  bridge  on  the  way 
to  the  pasture. 

In  the  second  place  there  is  the  Church  as  a 
saving  institution.  The  old  Catholic  said,  get 
into  the  boat.  You  get  in,  you  are  active  to  that 
extent;  and  you  must  sit  so  as  not  to  upset  the 
boat;  again  you  are  so  far  active;  but  after  you 
get  in  and  when  you  behave  properly  the  servant 
of  the  Church  will  pull  you  safely  to  the  other 
side.  The  old  Protestant  said,  get  into  the  car- 
riage, you  must  get  in  and  you  must  not  upset 
the  carriage,  and  the  minister  of  religion  after 
you  are  in  will  see  that  you  ford  the  river  and  get 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  TITLE  3 

comfortably  to  the  other  shore.  If  men  are  satis- 
fied with  ecclesiasticism,  this  method  is  ideal. 

The  third  way  is  the  way  of  insight,  a  succes- 
sion of  insights,  a  constellation  of  insights,  tested 
by  experience,  put  to  the  service  of  the  soul, 
to  the  service  of  one's  own  time  and  world. 
These  insights  call  upon  the  intellect,  as  it  min- 
isters to  life,  for  courage,  patience,  self-reliance, 
the  spirit  of  adventure;  for  dash  and  achieving 
power.  The  gain  which  comes  from  adopting 
this  way  is  often  consoling,  and  when  it  is  not 
consoling  it  is  humorous;  it  is  like  the  man  who 
skips  across  the  river  on  the  stones;  if  he  comes 
through  triumphantly  the  victory  is  exhilarating; 
if  he  tumbles  into  the  stream,  the  mishap  is  not 
fatal,  besides  it  creates  clean,  heroic  mirth. 

If  the  reader  does  not  want  to  cross  the  river 
of  time  by  this  path,  I  blame  him  not  at  all. 
We  are  still  one  in  devotion  to  the  end;  we  both 
desire  to  make  the  other  side  with  honor,  and  to 
present  ourselves  there  as  servants  of  the  Highest. 
We  disagree  about  the  means;  we  disagree  here 
because  the  process  of  attaining  the  end  signifies, 
in  one  way,  and  to  one  man,  the  greater  life  at  the 
goal;  in  another  way,  and  to  another  man,  poorer, 
cowardlier  life  at  the  end.  The  choice  is  in  free- 
dom: 

"Choose  well;  your  choice  is 
Brief  and  yet  endless.'* 


4     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

Go  by  the  mill-round  or  by  the  sun-path;  the  end 
qualifies  the  means,  the  means  greaten  or  im- 
poverish the  end.  All  believers  in  the  Eter- 
nal reality  are  alike  in  the  end  they  wish  to 
attain;  in  the  pursuit,  churchman,  dogmatist, 
seer,  pioneer,  and  great-souled  adventurer,  differ 
always,  and  at  times  their  difference  from  one 
another  is  wide  as  the  world.  It  is  Kipling's 
song  over  again, 

"Oh,  East  is  East,  and  West  is  West,  and  never  the 
twain  shall  meet, 
Till  Earth  and  Sky  stand  presently  at  God's  great 
Judgment  seat." 

There  are,  however,  now  and  then,  exceptions  to 
this  iron  rule,  as  again  in  the  same  song, 

**But  there  is  neither  East  nor  West,  Border,  nor 
Breed  nor  Birth, 
Where  two  strong  men  stand  face  to  face,  tho*  they 
come  from  the  ends  of  the  earth." 

II 

What  shall  we  call  our  stepping  stones?  How 
may  we  best  express  the  final  mood  to  which  the 
free  mind  of  the  Christian  thinker  comes  in  the 
consideration  of  the  world  and  the  universe  in 
which  we  live?  When  one  speaks,  neither  out 
of  the  moment  of  exaltation,  nor  out  of  the 
hour  of  depression,  but  out  of  the  great,  steady 
conviction  that  rises  in  one's  heart  concerning 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  TITLE  5 

life,  which  among  the  many  descriptive  phrases 
that  one  might  use  seems  the  sincerest,  the  most 
faithful?  How  great  speech  would  be,  if  it  should 
accord  completely  with  the  real  mind,  the  hon- 
est experience,  the  actual  discovery,  the  sincere 
and  sure  hope  of  the  speaker.  More  and  more, 
it  would  seem,  the  world  wants,  neither  to  be 
soothed  by  orthodoxies,  nor  to  be  excited  by 
heterodoxies,  but  to  be  invited  to  hsten  to  the 
honest  recital  of  what  the  mind  has  found,  what 
conclusions  it  has  reached,  what  ideas  have  best 
stood  the  great  vital  test,  the  fears  that  have 
been  clouds,  and  the  hopes  that  have  been  favor- 
ing winds,  in  the  adventurous  voyage  of  time. 
This  characteristic  is,  I  dare  to  think,  supreme 
in  all  those  books  that  men  call  great.  Such  books 
do  not  put  us  off  with  dreams,  artificialities, 
"cunningly  devised  fables";  they  do  not  offer 
one  the  plumage  of  the  bird,  for  the  living  singer; 
they  take  one  into  their  confidence,  tell  the  vision 
as  it  has  risen,  increased,  decreased,  changed, 
upon  the  mind:  they  recite  the  tale  in  disdain 
of  lies,  in  profound  homage  to  truth.  To  keep 
such  books  before  one,  as  one  works  at  the  task 
of  the  hour  or  the  day,  is  to  draw,  like  the  farmer, 
inspiration  from  the  great  mountains  at  whose 
base  hes  the  field  that  he  plows  or  reaps.  The 
great  classics  call  upon  our  homage  on  account 
of  their  width  of  vision,  their  fullness  of  experi- 


6     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

ence,  their  noble  wisdom;  they  also  engage  and 
delight  by  their  simplicity,  their  sincerity,  their 
fidelity  to  the  inwfird  fact. 

I  was  at  first  inclined  to  take  as  the  title  of 
this  book,  *'  Inevitable  Ideas  of  Faith."  The 
inevitableness  of  natural  law,  in  the  rise  and  fall 
of  the  tides,  in  the  revolutions,  diurnal  and  an- 
nual, of  the  earth,  indicating  something  of  the 
quality  meant.  In  history  there  is  often  seen  an 
approach  to  this  kind  of  power.  Daniel  Webster, 
in  the  speech  which  he  imputes  to  John  Adams, 
during  the  debate,  in  the  Continental  Congress, 
upon  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  does  not 
exaggerate  when  he  says,  *'  Read  this  Declara- 
tion at  the  head  of  the  army;  every  sword  will  be 
drawn  from  its  scabbard,  and  the  solemn  vow 
uttered,  to  maintain  it,  or  perish  on  the  bed  of 
honor.  Publish  it  from  the  pulpit;  religion  will 
approve  it,  and  the  love  of  religious  liberty  will 
cling  round  it,  resolved  to  stand  with  it,  or  fall 
with  it.  Send  it  to  the  public  halls;  proclaim  it 
there;  let  them  hear  it  who  heard  the  first  roar 
of  the  enemy's  cannon;  let  them  see  it  who  saw 
their  brothers  and  their  sons  fall  on  the  field  of 
Bunker  Hill,  and  in  the  streets  of  Lexington  and 
Concord,  and  the  very  walls  will  cry  out  in  its 
support."  ^ 

We  think  of  the  inevitableness  of  all  great 
1  Webster's  Works,  vol.  i,  p.  135. 


TEE  MEANING   OF  THE  TITLE  7 

poetry;  the  best  work  in  Homer  and  Sophocles, 
in  Dante  and  Shakspere,  in  Milton  and  Goethe, 
is  inevitable.  There  is,  too,  inevitable  music, 
painting,  sculpture,  building.  Something  of  this 
may  be  claimed  for  thought.  The  ideas  out  of 
which  flows  the  religion  of  Jesus  might  be  de- 
scribed as  inevitable,  if  man  is  to  retain  the 
spirit  of  worship  in  the  presence  of  the  universe. 
A  certain  scribe  asked  Jesus,  '*  What  command- 
ment is  the  first  of  all?"  Jesus  answered,  "The 
first  is.  Hear,  O  Israel;  the  Lord  our  God,  the 
Lord  is  one:  and  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul, 
and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength. 
The  second  is  this.  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself.  There  is  none  other  commandment 
greater  than  these."  ^  The  response  of  the  candid 
questioner  bears  witness  to  the  inevitable  char- 
acter of  this  teaching:  "Of  a  truth.  Teacher, 
thou  hast  well  said  he  is  one:  and  there  is  none 
other  but  he:  and  to  love  him  with  all  the  heart, 
and  with  all  the  understanding,  and  with  all  the 
strength,  and  to  love  his  neighbor  as  himself,  is 
much  more  than  all  whole  burnt  offerings  and 
sacrifices."  ^ 

Given  as  premise  the  assurance,  that  the  Eter- 
nal is  the  God  and  Father  of  men,  and  certain 
ideas  about  human  life  and  destiny  are  clearly 
1  Mark  12:  28-31.  2  Mark  12:  32-34. 


8     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

inevitable.  If  we  assume  the  truth  of  the  open- 
ing words  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  Our  Father  who 
art  in  heaven,  the  worth  of  every  human  soul, 
the  immeasurable  value  of  a  dutiful  existence, 
the  undeniable  reality  of  our  social  humanity, 
and  its  endless  future,  are  inevitable.  On  our 
fundamental  assumption  these  ideas  are  inalien- 
able; they  cannot  be  expelled  from  the  mind  of 
civilized  man.  We  read  that  the  Apostle  Peter, 
on  one  occasion  when  he  was  supposed  to  be  in 
prison,  appeared  at  the  door  of  a  friend  and 
knocked.  The  maid  who  went  to  the  door  was 
frightened;  she  thought  she  had  seen  Peter's 
ghost.  She  closed  the  door  in  the  apostle's  face 
and  ran  and  told  what  she  had  seen.  But  Peter 
continued  knocking  till  the  agitation  passed,  till 
calm  and  sanity  returned,  till  the  door  was  opened 
and  he  was  bidden  enter.  Certain  ideas  about  the 
universe,  and  about  human  life,  its  origin,  mean- 
ing, purpose,  worth,  destiny  cannot  be  expelled; 
they  remain  within  the  hearing  of  a  living  hu- 
manity; they  continue  knocking  till  they  prevail. 
Shall  we  then  call  our  stepping  stones,  *'  Inevit- 
able Ideas  of  Faith,"  and  rest  there?  This  phrase 
will  accord  with  one  mood :  it  will  not  accord  with 
another.  We  are  not  quite  so  confident  about 
our  ideas,  at  least  all  the  time,  as  to  say  of  them, 
without  qualification,  that  they  are  inevitable. 
If  Cromwell  should  appear  today,  there  would  be 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  TITLE  9 

no  need  for  him  to  say  to  our  age,  what  he  said 
to  the  Scottish  Presbyterians  of  his  own  time, 
"  I  beseech  you,  in  the  bowels  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
believe  it  possible  that  you  may  be  mistaken." 
Our  misgivings  are  abundant;  they  call  neither 
for  multiplication  nor  for  emphasis.  The  best 
men  and  women  of  our  time  often  seriously  con- 
sider the  reality  of  their  faith;  they  sometimes 
wonder  whether  after  all  Christianity  may  not  be 
merely  a  sublime  dream,  good  news  indeed,  but 
too  good  to  be  true.  In  this  mood  they  think 
that  to  speak  of  their  deepest  and  dearest  faith 
as  inevitably  true,  is  to  go  beyond  the  warrant 
of  clear,  sincere,  inward  conviction. 

When  I  was  a  boy  in  Scotland,  in  the  absence 
of  a  weighing  machine,  we  used  to  measure  the 
cattle  before  sending  them  to  the  market,  and 
from  the  measurement,  we  calculated  the  weight 
and  the  worth  of  the  animal.  We  boys  were  apt 
to  make  the  cattle  as  large  as  we  could.  The 
older  and  wiser  heads  told  us  that  by  this  method 
of  exaggeration  we  were  cheating  no  one  but 
ourselves.  Their  advice  to  us  was,  measure  with 
exactness  that  your  calculations  may  be  on  a 
sound  basis.   In  this  sense, 

**  There  lives  more  faith  in  honest  doubt. 
Believe  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds." 

Exaggeration,  special  pleading,  misrepresenta- 
tion of  experience,  infidelity  to  pure  conviction. 


10     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

and  irresponsible  utterance  take  one  away  from 
the  kingdom  of  truth  and  set  one  down  close 
to  the  borders  of  the  kingdom  of  lies. 

I  then  thought  of  this  title  —  "Time-attested 
Ideas  of  Faith."  Much  could  be  said  for  this  de- 
scription. Those  who  have  made  their  pilgrim- 
age as  if  God  were  indeed  the  Father  in  heaven, 
who  have  striven  to  follow  Jesus  as  if  he  were 
truly  the  Light  of  the  World,  those  who  have 
acted  on  the  assumption  of  the  sanctity  of  human 
life,  its  divine  origin  and  destiny,  who  have 
behaved  in  time  as  the  children  of  the  Infinite, 
as  the  heirs  of  Eternity,  have  found  the  great 
thoughts  that  compose  the  substance  of  Christian 
faith,  issue  from  the  trouble  and  sorrow  of  their 
experience,  as  the  stars  do  from  the  wild  gloom 
of  the  evening,  into  everlasting  brightness. 

Everlasting  ideas  of  faith,  ideas  verified  by 
faith;  so  those  products  of  the  experience  of  all 
the  high  souls  in  Christian  history  seem  to  declare 
themselves  to  be.  But  criticism  returns.  The 
verification  is  partial;  it  has  been  carried  over 
only  a  section  of  the  entire,  troubled,  psychic  life 
of  man,  and  it  has  attained  the  result  that  these 
ideas  of  faith  are  enduring,  not  that  they  are  ever- 
lasting in  their  validity. 

To  say  that  an  idea  is  enduring  is  something; 
it  is  an  introduction  to  its  character;  it  is  not  a 
clear  certificate  of  worth,  since  there  are  in  the 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  TITLE  11 

world  today  many  grey-head  lies,  strong  and  ex- 
tremely active  for  their  age.  In  the  philosophy 
of  Heraclitus,  who  lived  in  the  sixth  centm-y 
before  Christ,  we  find  the  motto  which  Bernardi 
places  at  the  head  of  one  of  his  most  ferocious 
books,  and  which  appears  to  consecrate  as  truth 
the  extreme  militaristic  programme, "  Strife  is  the 
father  of  the  universe."  This  idea  is  nearly  six 
hundred  years  older  than  the  Lord's  Prayer;  it  is 
an  idea  that  has  played  a  vastly  greater  part  in 
the  life  of  Europe,  in  recent  years,  than  the  idea 
that  Love  is  the  Father  of  the  universe.  There 
is  the  idea  that  might  makes  right,  exemplified 
a  thousand  times,  from  the  conquest  of  Canaan 
by  the  Israelites  to  the  violation  of  Belgium  by 
the  Germans.  There  is  the  idea  of  life  as  vanity, 
illustrated  all  the  way  from  the  holy  pessimism 
of  Buddha,  the  ignoble  experimentation  of  Ec- 
clesiastes,  the  mockery  and  sensuality  of  Omar 
Khayyam,  the  tragic  miseries  of  Swift,  the  wild 
egoism  of  Schopenhauer,  and  the  vast,  lurid, 
intemperate  dream  of  '*the  City  of  Dreadful 
Night,"  down  to  the  latest  issues  of  contempo- 
rary despair.  I  conclude  that  the  race  has  not 
yet  lived  long  enough  to  be  sure  that  the  ideas 
regarded  as  false  and  evil  necessarily  die.  It  is 
my  belief  that  in  the  long  run  the  stars  in  their 
courses  fight  against  atheism  and  inhumanity, 
that  the  idea  that  war  is  the  father  of  the  uni- 


12      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

verse,  that  might  makes  right,  that  Hfe  is  empty 
and  vain,  will  be  finally  expelled  from  human  ex- 
perience by  the  demonstration  of  history.  That 
is  my  belief,  but  belief  is  not  knowledge. 

I  therefore  prefer  to  call  my  book,  *'  Aspects  of 
the  Infinite  Mystery."  This  title  seems  to  me 
to  be  in  fundamental  accord  with  the  great 
but  uncomprehended  meaning  of  human  life 
and  the  universe.  What  the  Roman  theologians 
called  a  sacrament,  the  Greek  theologians  called 
a  mystery.  A  mystery  had  two  meanings;  it  was 
something  to  which  one  could  not  be  admitted 
without  adequate  preparation;  it  was  something 
whose  reality,  even  to  the  most  gifted  among  the 
initiated,  transcended  all  understanding.  The 
Lord's  supper  means  nothing  to  a  pagan.  The 
bread  and  the  wine  are  physical  things;  the  eating 
and  drinking  of  them  are  nothing  but  a  physical 
process.  On  the  mere  physical  level  the  supper  is 
transparently  meaningless.  To  the  Christian  it  is 
different;  to  him  it  is  a  symbol;  the  reality  is  a 
fellowship  with  the  soul  of  the  Lord,  an  experi- 
ence falling  within  and  yet  passing  the  bounds  of 
the  understanding.  I  have  a  glass  paper-weight 
in  my  study;  I  have  had  it  there  for  more  than 
forty  years,  and  I  have  shown  it  to  many  chil- 
dren. It  has  an  exquisite  flower  imbedded  in  its 
heart,  and  as  soon  as  the  children  see  it  they  in- 
variably ask,  "How  did  that  flower  get  in  there?  " 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  TITLE  13 

I  invariably  answer,  I  do  not  know  how  it  got  in 
there;  I  do  know  that  it  is  there. 

The  Divine  presence  is  in  the  heart  of  our  hu- 
manity ;  in  our  higher  moments,  of  that  we  are  sure. 
How  it  got  in,  how  it  continues  to  increase  in  the 
increasing  hfe  of  the  rehgious  soul,  and  the  reli- 
gious society,  we  do  not  know.  I  like  my  title, 
"Aspects  of  the  Infinite  Mystery,"  because  it 
does  not  commit  me  to  what  seems  to  me,  at  our  ^ 
present  stage  of  progress,  an  impossibility,  an 
adequate  philosophy  of  the  Divine  meaning  of 
man's  life. 

The  title  corresponds  to  the  mood,  I  believe, 
of  the  bravest  and  deepest  minds.  I  cannot  for- 
get a  conversation  repeated  to  me  by  Dr.  R.  S. 
Storrs  of  Brooklyn,  which  he  had  with  Professor 
Edwards  A.  Park  of  Andover.  Dr.  Storrs  was 
only  thirteen  years  younger  than  his  famous 
teacher,  upon  whom  he  looked  as  the  greatest  he 
had  ever  known.  Professor  Park  was  universally 
acknowledged  to  be  the  most  accomplished  dia- 
lectician and  logician  of  his  generation.  He  ac- 
knowledged no  difficulties  that  were  insuperable 
and  for  him  there  were  no  mysteries, — at  least 
in  his  classroom !  He  was  ninety  years  of  age  at 
the  time  of  this  conversation  and  his  eyesight 
was  failing.  He  had  spent  three  or  four  weeks 
alone  in  a  darkened  room,  in  great  pain,  the 
gloom,  the  tedium  and  the  pain  relieved  slightly 


14     ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

by  an  occasional  visitor.  Dr.  Storrs  was  one  of 
those  visitors;  he  inquired  for  the  health  of  his 
teacher  and  got  this  reply,  half  humorous,  half 
serious:  "The  pain  has  been  very  great,  but  I  can 
endure  that;  I  am  dependent  upon  others,  like  a 
baby,  —  that  is  a  serious  humiliation,  but  I  can 
endure  it;  but  this  gradual  crumbling  of  a  man's 
powers,  Oh,  the  mystery  of  it!"  There  was  one 
flash  from  the  infinite  depths;  no  more:  the  old 
humor  returned;  a  flash  from  the  farther  side  of 
dialectics,  logic,  theology,  from  the  man's  funda- 
mental, original  amazed  sense  of  the  mystery  of 
life.  At  one  time  or  another,  in  one  way  or  an- 
other, all  thinking  human  beings  have  that  ex- 
perience.  Oh,  the  mystery  of  it! 

The  title,  "Aspects  of  the  Infinite  Mystery," 
appeals  to  the  elemental  emotions;  wonder,  for 
example.  Plato  says  that  philosophy,  heavenly 
wisdom,  is  the  child  of  wonder.  Aristotle  says 
that  all  philosophy  begins  in  wonder.  An  infinite 
universe,  complex,  amazing,  appeals  to  the  mind, 
and  wonder  is  the  first  answer.  The  Bible  well 
says,  *'The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of 
wisdom";  the  beginning  of  all  wisdom  is  awe, 
hallowed  wonder.  Again  it  is  true  as  another  says, 
*'  Surely  the  Lord  is  in  this  place  and  I  knew  it 
not;  how  dreadful  is  this  place!  this  is  none  other 
than  the  house  of  God  and  this  the  gate  of  hea- 
ven." 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  TITLE  15 

This  title  carries  one  beyond  our  best  thoughts 
to  the  transcendent  glory  of  God.  He  is  in  our 
world  and  in  all  worlds,  but  infinitely  beyond 
extends  his  perfection.  This  is  the  great  idea  of 
the  prophet.  "For  my  thoughts  are  not  your 
thoughts,  neither  are  your  ways  my  ways,  saith 
the  Lord;  for  as  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the 
earth  so  are  my  thoughts  than  your  thoughts  and 
my  ways  than  your  ways."  There  is  the  comfort 
of  living  in  a  universe  whose  excellence  is  so  great 
that  our  thoughts  are  but  shadows  upon  the  hill- 
sides of  the  Eternal  reality!  With  a  universe 
infinitely  perfect  and  resourceful,  we  can  expect 
anything;  with  a  meagre  God  and  a  meagre  uni- 
verse, however  well-disposed,  not  niuch  is  to  be 
expected.  Jesus  said  that  with  God  all  things  are 
possible.  If  that  is  true  the  heart  may  be  at  rest. 
The  older  I  grow,  while  I  am  increasingly  thank- 
ful for  the  great  thoughts  that  God  has  given  to 
the  world,  about  himself,  the  less  do  I  trust  in 
them,  and  the  more  in  the  Ineffable  Reality 
behind  man's  highest  thinking. 

Ten  years  ago  I  spent  forty-six  days  and  nights 
on  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  the  Mediterranean 
Sea.  I  took  one  ship  after  another  and  all  the 
ships  were  good  and  all  brought  me  to  my  de- 
sired haven  in  peace.  I  had  no  reason  for  any- 
thing but  grateful  thoughts  of  those  ships  and  the 
service  they  rendered;  but  while  they  were  doing 


16     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

me  this  service  I  thought  what  tiny  things  they 
were  compared  with  the  wide  rolUng  ocean, 
sweeping  either  pole  and  washing  the  West  and 
the  East;  how  incommensurate  they  were  with 
that  great  sea,  two  thousand  miles  in  length,  that 
stretches  from  the  pillars  of  Hercules  to  Asia 
Minor;  little  boats  they  surely  were;  the  sea  and 
the  ocean  were  the  transcendent  reality.  Thus  it 
is  with  our  thoughts  about  God,  the  Lord  Jesus, 
the  moral  order  of  our  world,  the  moral  order  of 
the  universe;  the  worth  of  humanity,  the  precious- 
ness  of  the  individual  soul,  the  forces  and  tides 
of  retribution,  the  sense  of  life  beyond  death. 
Our  thoughts  at  their  best  are  precious,  they  will 
take  us  to  our  desired  haven;  but  they  are  noth- 
ing in  comparison  with  the  majesty  and  the  eter- 
nity of  the  Reality !  We  build  not  upon  our  in- 
sight, precious  as  that  may  be,  and  indeed  essen- 
tial; we  build  on  that  to  which  our  insight  leads; 
we  found  heart,  home,  state,  church,  our  whole 
humanity  upon  the  being  of  God. 

Ill 
One  more  introductory  question  remains  to  be 
considered.  This  question  concerns  a  word  or 
phrase  current  in  the  present  chapter,  recurrent 
in  all  the  other  chapters  of  this  book  —  the 
Eternal.  Has  that  great,  vague,  august  word 
any  real  meaning  behind  it?  Does  it  indicate  the 


THE  MEANING  OF  TUE  TITLE  17 

cloudlands  of  imagination  or  does  it  stand  for 
the  greatest  of  human  thoughts?  Is  the  Eternal 
the  background  of  all  human  thinking,  the  judg- 
ment-seat at  which  the  mind  of  man,  and  man's 
entire  world  in  time  must  appear?  Is  the  apostle 
to  the  nations  right  in  his  classification  and  valu- 
ation of  judgments?  He  says,  **  But  with  me  it  is 
a  very  small  thing  that  I  should  be  judged  of  you, 
or  of  man's  judgment:  yea,  I  judge  not  mine  own 
self.  For  I  know  nothing  against  myself;  yet  am 
I  not  hereby  justified :  but  he  that  judgeth  me  is 
the  Lord."  ^  The  world-conscience  is  elementary, 
introductory;  the  individual  conscience  is  great 
but  not  final.  The  Lord  is  judge;  through  him 
life  goes  up  to  the  Absolute  conscience  for  the 
final  verdict. 

'  What  do  we  mean  by  the  Eternal?  Many  per- 
sons would  say,  the  everlasting.  We  mean  that 
and  much  more.  The  idea  of  the  everlasting  is 
not  the  core  of  the  Eternal.  The  wild  Pragmatist 
says  the  Eternal  is  the  static,  the  temporal  is  the 
dynamic,  and  men  must  change  their  homage 
from  static  being  to  being  in  progress.  Our  reply 
is  that  all  this  is  on  the  surface.  No  man  ever 
loved  the  Eternal  because  it  does  nothing,  or 
because  it  simply  endures.  The  Eternal  has  laid 
men  under  its  spell  because  of  its  worth,  its  abso- 
lute worth.  When  they  have  found  that  the 
1  1  Corinth.  4:3-4. 


18      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

Eternal  as  Absolute  worth  endures  forever,  they 
have  found  in  it  their  home: 

**  Lord  thou  hast  been  our  dwelling  place 
In  all  generations."  ^ 

In  the  great  version  of  Isaac  Watts : 

"Our  God  our  help  in  ages  past, 
Our  hope  for  years  to  come; 
Our  shelter  from  the  stormy  blast 
And  our  Eternal  home." 

When  we  say  that  we  mean  by  the  Eternal 
worth  Absolute,  the  question  comes,  What  do  we 
mean  by  worth?  We  do  not  mean  by  worth  the 
order  and  beauty  of  nature,  nor  its  adaptation  to 
life.  These  things  may  be,  conceivably  at  least, 
by  chance  or  necessity,  and  chance  and  necessity 
are  no  part  of  worth.  We  mean  by  worth,  good 
will,  effective  good  will,  the  will  that  is  Love  and 
Power.  Worth  is  an  attribute  of  persons,  the 
valiant  soldier,  the  beloved  physician,  the  incor- 
ruptible judge,  the  pure  patriot,  the  wise  ruler, 
the  great  prophet  who  gives  himself  in  life  and 
in  death  to  his  cause,  the  coming  of  the  kingdom 
of  man.  If  worth  is  an  attribute  of  persons,  the 
Supreme  person,  or  mind,  will  have  the  highest 
worth.  The  Supreme  mind,  or  Person,  is  God; 
therefore  the  highest  worth  belongs  to  him; 
therefore  he  is  the  Eternal  God. 

If  we  look  into  the  New  Testament  we  find 
»  Ps.  90:1. 


THE  MEANING   OF  THE  TITLE  19 

these  clear  ideas:  that  eternal  life  is  the  knowl- 
edge of  God;  that  eternal  punishment  is  life  with- 
out God;  that  the  Eternal  as  worth  is  God,  and 
that  in  Him  it  is  endowed  with  everlastingness. 
This  is  the  Being  that  Mrs.  Stowe  brings  before 
us  in  her  beautiful  elaboration  of  a  phrase  in  the 
139th  Psalm: 

"Still,  still  with  thee,  when  purple  morning  breaketh. 

When  the  bird  waketh  and  the  shadows  flee: 
Fairer  than  morning,  lovelier  than  the  daylight, 

Dawns  the  sweet  consciousness,  I  am  with  thee. 
Alone  with  thee,  amid  the  mystic  shadows. 

The  solemn  hush  of  nature  newly  born; 
Alone  with  thee,  in  breathless  adoration. 

In  the  calm  dew  and  freshness  of  the  morn. 

*'  When  sinks  the  soul,  subdued  by  toil,  to  slumber. 

Its  closing  eye  looks  up  to  thee  in  prayer; 
Sweet  the  repose,  beneath  thy  wings  o'ershadowing. 

But  sweeter  still  to  wake  and  find  thee  there. 
So  shall  it  be  at  last  in  that  bright  morning 

When  the  soul  waketh,  and  life's  shadows  flee; 
Oh,  in  that  hour,  and  fairer  than  day's  dawning. 

Shall  rise  the  glorious  thought,  I  am  with  thee." 

Here  is  the  great  awakening  into  the  presence  of 
the  Absolute  worth ;  the  wonder  of  nature  as  the 
symbol  of  the  Transcendent  worth;  the  exhaus- 
tion of  life  and  its  refreshment  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  that  sure  but  elusive  Presence,  the  final 
act  of  life,  —  death,  and  the  endless  morning,  in 
the  being  of  the  Infinite  mystery. 
One  looks  upon  a  beehive,  and  one  wonders  at 


20      ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

the  sagacity,  order,  and  industry  of  these  marvel- 
lous insects.  They  build  homes,  store  food  for  the 
future;  they  have  leaders  and  rulers;  they  main- 
tain a  kind  of  government,  their  building  is  akin 
to  art  and  to  science;  their  social  nature  and 
conduct  invite  philosophy;  their  mutual  devotion 
and  their  happiness  suggest  religion;  their  sym- 
pathy with  well-doers,  their  punishment  of  wrong- 
doers would  seem  to  imply  the  sense  of  good  and 
evil.  One  notes  this  wonder  and  something  more. 
One  sees  that  this  beehive  is  after  all  of  little  sig- 
nificance. All  its  interests  are  confined  to  a  tiny 
portion  of  space,  and  to  a  brief  moment  of  time. 
Miraculous  as  is  the  life  of  this  society  of  insects, 
it  is  wholly  in  the  seen  and  temporal,  and  there 
it  is  only  for  a  season. 

We  are  often  tempted  to  look  at  human  so- 
ciety in  this  way.  We  take  a  position  in  imagina- 
tion far  above  the  world.  We  look  down  upon 
the  earth,  and  note  a  small  globe  floating  in  the 
boundless  ether;  we  are  able  by  one  means  or  an- 
other to  make  out  the  race  of  man,  —  his  indus- 
try, art,  science,  philosophy,  government,  reli- 
gion, and  w^e  are  indeed  filled  with  wonder.  But 
up  where  we  stand  we  are  not  profoundly  affected 
by  the  vision.  We  see  a  race  of  wonderful  crea- 
tures rise  up  out  of  the  dust;  in  a  few  years  we 
see  a  generation  of  them  return  to  dust;  we  say, 
miraculous  as  this  race  is,  it  is  significant  only 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  TITLE  21 

for  a  small  part  of  infinite  space,  and  a  brief  por- 
tion of  infinite  time.  Human  society  is  only  a 
greater  beehive,  with  a  harder  fate,  to  be  con- 
scious of  its  nothingness  to  the  Universe,  to  be 
aware  of  its  doom. 

This  mood  that  has  greatly  troubled  the  mod- 
ern mind  dissolves  only  in  the  presence  of  great 
religion.  Great  religion  breaks  through  time;  it 
breaks  through  time  to  find  and  to  worship  the 
Absolute  worth;  it  binds  God  and  man  in  one 
communion,  the  Beloved  and  the  lover;  the  Be- 
loved as  Infinite  worth,  the  lover  as  made  to 
adore,  and  rejoice  in,  and  serve  the  Infinite 
worth.  Great  religion  thus  sets  the  human  soul 
in  universal  relations;  fills  these  relations  with 
high  moment,  burdens  them  with  solemn  ac- 
countability, brings  to  them  the  increasing  sense 
of  worth.  As  our  earth  is  known  to  astronomy 
as  part  of  a  universal  system,  so  our  human  world 
is  known  by  great  religion  as  part  of  the  Infinite 
being. 

These  great  relations  of  the  human  spirit, 
these  super-temporal  meanings  of  our  existence, 
this  ultimate  scope  of  man's  being,  and  its  high- 
est content,  oftenest  appear,  hke  the  vast  moun- 
tain range,  in  mist,  in  trouble,  in  storm,  in  sun- 
light, or  moonlight,  broken  by  fragments  of  flying 
clouds;  the  whole  stands  clear  and  sublime  only 
at  favored  moments.   Now  we  see  in  a  mirror 


22     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

darkly;  now  we  know  in  part,  and  we  prophesy- 
in  part.  When  that  which  is  perfect  is  come  that 
which  is  in  part  shall  be  done  away.  Our  knowl- 
edge of  the  Eternal  God  is  provisional  not  be- 
cause it  is  not  true  so  far  as  it  goes,  but  because 
God  and  the  world  of  worth  are  immeasurably 
beyond  our  highest  thought,  our  devoutest  and 
surest  dream.  We  are  in  the  presence  of  the  Infi- 
nite mystery  of  Godliness;  our  increasing  sense  of 
this  Reality  means  the  increasing  life  of  human- 
ity; yet  this  life  must  ever  be  in  the  awe  of  the 
uncomprehended  Fullness  of  truth  and  love. 
Wise  men  still  sing  their  way  into  the  Divine 
secret,  as  Charles  Wesley  did, 

"Come,  Oh  thou  traveller  unknown, 
Whom  still  I  hold,  but  cannot  see: 
My  company  before  is  gone, 
And  I  am  left  alone  with  Thee; 
With  Thee  all  night  I  mean  to  stay. 
And  wrestle  till  the  break  of  day.'* 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  GOOD  AS  THE  PATH  TO  GOD 

I 

When  we  look  at  a  piece  of  tapestry  we  see  at 
once  that  it  is  a  whole,  that  it  is  one  thing;  and 
when  we  analyze  it  and  discover  the  parts  that 
compose  it  as  a  whole,  again  we  see  at  once  that 
one  part,  as  far  as  it  goes,  is  as  real  as  any  other 
part,  and  that  all  the  parts  taken  together  con- 
stitute the  one,  complete  thing.  We  analyze  it 
and  we  find  first  of  all  the  warp,  that  is,  the 
threads  that  run  lengthwise  on  the  loom;  in  the 
second  place  we  find  the  woof,  that  is,  the  threads 
that  run  crosswise  on  the  loom;  in  the  third  place 
we  find  the  design,  the  figure,  which  is  inlaid  in 
the  warp  and  woof,  woven  into  them;  and  in  the 
fourth  place  we  find  the  color,  the  character,  the 
spirit,  the  beauty  and  the  power  that  hve  in  the 
whole. 

When  we  look  into  the  experience  of  a  normal 
and  highly  developed  human  being,  we  discover 
that  it  is  one  thing,  a  whole,  and  when  we  analyze 
it,  we  find  that  this  whole  is  made  up  of  parts, 
that  each  part,  as  far  as  it  goes,  is  as  real  as  an- 
other, and  that  all  the  parts  together  constitute 
the  whole. 


24     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

There  is  the  feeling  of  self,  the  sense  that  one  is 
a  real  being,  that  is  aboriginal;  without  that  there 
can  be  no  experience;  before  there  can  be  an  ex- 
perience, there  must  be  a  subject  of  experience; 
nothing  can  experience  nothing.  A  real  being  is 
the  subject  of  a  real  experience,  that  is  the  warp, 
the  thread  that  runs  lengthwise  on  the  loom  of 
existence.  The  ground  of  experience  is  the  sense 
of  self,  the  conviction  that  each  self  is  an  indubi- 
table reality.  I  think,  that  is  to  say  I  am;  I  act, 
that  is  to  say  I  am;  I  experience  life,  that  is  to  say 
I  am. 

This  self  is  set  into  the  world  of  nature,  and  the 
world  of  nature  is  set  into  the  world  of  the  self. 
We  feel  nature  a  reality  in  us;  we  feel  ourselves  a 
reality  in  nature.  Nature  is  in  our  self  as  fact,  as 
beauty,  as  law;  that  is  the  woof  of  experience,  the 
thread  that  runs  crosswise  on  the  loom  of  being. 
Together  these  constitute  the  real  groundwork  of 
existence;  they  each  hold  the  other  in  place;  they 
prepare  for  the  richer  development  of  life. 

We  are  conscious  that  there  are  human  beings 
other  than  ourselves,  that  we  live  in  a  human 
fellowship.  This  feeling  is  developed  through 
home,  play,  school,  friends;  through  the  sense  of 
community  and  humanity.  This  is  the  social 
design  of  our  being  set  into  the  warp  and  woof  of 
experience,  woven  into  the  sense  of  personality 
and  the  sense  of  nature. 


THE  GOOD  AS  THE  PATH  TO  GOD       25 

In  addition  to  all  this  there  is  the  sense  of  the 
Infinite.  Within  there  are  unfathomable  depths, 
unattainable  heights;  without  there  are  immen- 
sity and  eternity.  Our  life  is  filled  and  tran- 
scended by  the  Infinite.  Here  is  the  sense  of  God 
as  the  meaning,  beauty,  spirit  and  power  of  our 
whole  experience. 

Each  of  these  parts  implies  the  others;  each  is 
given  with  the  others;  all  are  found  together,  all 
work  together,  —  self,  nature,  humanity  and 
God,  they  are  all  woven  together  in  one  rational 
experience.  We  do  not  hunt  for  the  self,  for  na- 
ture, humanity,  God;  we  find  them  together  in 
the  whole  of  the  living  experience.  If  we  should 
expel  any  one  of  these  four  forces,  we  should  tear 
to  pieces  the  integrity  of  our  existence.  Without 
the  self  there  can  be  no  experience;  without  na- 
ture there  can  be  none;  without  humanity,  and 
without  God  our  human  world  simply  could  not 
be.  This  fact  of  the  essentiality  of  these  four 
forces  to  life  explains  the  certainty  of  instinctive 
reason  in  regard  to  all  of  them.  Men  in  general 
have  little  time  to  think  beyond  their  practical 
interests;  thus  instinctive  reason  takes  the  place 
of  speculative  reason  among  the  multitude.  In- 
stinctive reason  assures  men  of  the  reality  of  the 
self,  of  nature,  of  other  people,  and  of  the  Infinite. 
Here  is  the  great,  secure  possession  of  unsophis- 
ticated man. 


26      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

When  we  ask  how  each  one  of  these  four  feel- 
ings becomes  distinctly  articulated  we  ask  one  of 
the  subtlest  and  deepest  of  all  questions.  How 
does  the  sense  of  personal  being  emerge  in  the 
infant  life?  In  what  way  does  the  sense  of  the 
reality  of  nature  come  to  the  infant  conscious- 
ness? How  do  we  come  to  be  sure  that  human 
beings  other  than  one's  self  exist?  How  do  we 
gain  the  distinct  and  mighty  consciousness  of  the 
Infinite  as  our  God?  All  great  psychology  is  con- 
cerned with  finding  the  origin,  and  in  tracing  the 
history  of  these  four  aspects  of  the  one  human 
experience;  and  all  great  philosophy  is  concerned 
in  testing  the  validity  of  the  results  attained  by 
the  psychologist.  Philosophy  is  thus  a  critique 
upon  experience;  it  is  the  great  rational  examiner 
of  the  content  of  the  spirit ;  its  motto  is  the  noble 
Socratic  confession  that  "  the  unexamined  life  is 
not  worth  living."  ^  This  task  is  not  an  attempt 
to  reduce  to  emptiness  the  living  reality  in  the 
heart  of  man;  it  is  a  work  of  critical  sympathy 
and  understanding,  the  aim  must  be  the  appraisal 
by  reason  and  to  reason  of  the  wealth  of  the  ex- 
perience of  the  human  being,  the  recognition  of 
its  reality  and  the  rational  ascertainment  of  its 
worth. 

I  am  concerned  here  and  now  with  this  ques- 
tion only:  How  does  the  sense  of  the  Infinite  be- 
1  Apology,  38  A. 


THE  GOOD  AS   THE  PATH  TO  GOD       27 

come  distinct  and  regnant  in  our  life?  There  are 
several  introductory  answers  to  this  question 
which  must  be  stated  before  I  come  to  what  I 
conceive  to  be  the  final  answer. 

We  are  conscious  of  the  pageant  of  nature  and 
of  humanity,  the  cosmic  and  the  human  proces- 
sion; it  is  beautiful,  pathetic,  tragic,  passing  in 
wonder  and  tears.  Whence  came  it  and  whither 
goes  it?  It  cannot  constitute  the  whole  universe. 
Heraclitus  said  it  is  impossible  to  bathe  twice  in 
the  same  stream;  his  disciple  Cratylus  censures 
his  master  for  the  moderation  of  this  statement, 
claiming  that  it  is  impossible  to  bathe  once  in  the 
same  stream,  since  all  things  are  forever  in  move- 
ment. Cratylus  continues  that  it  is  impossible  to 
define  or  describe  any  thing  or  event;  for  while 
we  speak  the  thing  or  event  has  ceased  to  be  and 
another  has  taken  its  vacant  place.  One  can  only 
sit  in  the  presence  of  this  wonder  of  eternal 
change  and  point.  That  contention  fairly  enough 
exhibits  one  side  of  life  and  life's  environment,  — 
the  evanescent.  There  must,  however,  be  an- 
other side;  otherwise  the  entire  universe  would 
finally  vanish.  Let  us  listen  to  the  Platonic  Soc- 
rates on  this  point:  " There  is  no  difficulty,"  said 
he,  "  in  understanding  what  I  say;  but  to  take  an 
example,  if  there  were  such  a  thing  as  going  to 
sleep  w^ithout  any  corresponding  waking  again, 
generated  from  that  which  is  asleep,  you  loiow 


28      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

that  at  last  Universal  nature  would  make  the 
famous  Endymion  a  mere  farce,  and  he  would 
be  altogether  eclipsed,  because  everything  else 
would  be  in  the  same  state  as  himself,  asleep."  ^ 
Here  science  takes  up  the  tale  and  asserts  that 
the  quantity  of  force  in  the  universe  is  always  the 
same.  There  is  therefore  the  permanent  amid  the 
transient;  there  is  the  independent  upon  which  to 
hang  the  dependent;  there  is  the  original  behind 
the  derivative,  the  eternal  behind  the  temporal. 
Here  is  one  step,  one  and  only  one,  but  it  is  a  step 
into  clearness. 

In  another  way  men  have  articulated  their 
sense  of  God;  this  way  is  by  finding  in  the  uni- 
verse an  embodied  thought.  The  universe  is  a 
wonder  to  the  unsophisticated  intellect;  it  gives 
the  natural,  one  might  add,  the  inevitable  im- 
pression of  being  the  expression  of  indwelling 
mind.  Its  order  and  method  and  movement  lend 
themselves,  as  it  would  seem,  to  the  theistic  in- 
terpretation. Nothing  great  that  man  creates  is 
without  mind,  the  greater  the  human  production 
the  greater  the  utterance  of  mind.  With  this 
experience  the  mind  of  man,  standing  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  vastness  and  wonder  of  the  physical 
universe,  is  as  it  were  constrained  to  resolve  it 
into  a  declaration  of  Intelligence.  Addison's  fine 
hymn,  the  best  utterance  of  the  impression  made 
1  Phaedo»  72  C. 


THE  GOOD  AS   THE  PATH  TO  GOD        29 

by  the  stellar  universe,  upon  instinctive  reason, 
in  ecclesiastical  poetry,  is  close  to  the  experience 
of  the  unsophisticated  mind: 

**The  spacious  firmament  on  high, 
With  all  the  blue  ethereal  sky. 
And  spangled  heavens,  a  shining  frame. 
Their  great  original  proclaim." 

In  full  sympathy  with  Addison's  hymn  are  Ba- 
con's words:  "God  never  wrought  miracles,  to 
convince  atheism,  because  his  ordinary  works 
convince  it."  It  is  indeed  difficult  to  resist  the 
impression  that  the  universe  is  the  utterance  of 
creative  mind,  in  spite  of  the  dark  things  that 
fringe  the  impression. 

There  is  a  still  more  intimate  way  in  which 
men  articulate  their  sense  of  the  Moral  Deity. 
The  heavenly  vision  comes  to  youth,  when  love 
comes,  when  marriage  comes,  when  parenthood 
comes,  when  the  great  human  cause  is  laid  at  the 
door  for  help.  To  put  that  heavenly  vision  into 
life  means  the  triumph  of  man,  to  fail  means  the 
descent  of  the  human  being  to  the  level  of  the 
brute.  The  task  is  here  defined  for  the  human 
being;  it  is  accepted,  let  us  say;  the  struggle  be- 
gins; the  strong  will  is  countered  by  stronger 
passions;  the  ship  cannot  cross  the  bar  to  start  on 
its  voyage  because  of  the  strength  of  the  tides 
that  oppose  it.  The  arrest  of  the  young  idealist 
follows,  his  peril,  his  grief,  and  finally,  his  prayer. 


30     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

He  opens  his  whole  heart  in  invocation  to  the 
Soul  of  the  universe,  and  wins  the  sense  of  suflB- 
cient  power.  He  returns  to  his  task  equal  to  the 
great  emergency,  and  possessing  in  himself  the 
witness  of  the  help  of  the  living  God.  The  moral 
history  of  the  true  men  of  the  world  is  rich  in  this 
type  of  experience.  The  mark  set  up  beyond  the 
wild  seas  of  passion  has  been  followed;  first  in 
despair,  then  in  desperate  hope;  finally  the  appeal 
to  the  Infinite  and  the  moral  response  of  the  In- 
finite to  the  soul,  has  issued  in  prosperous,  joyous 
power.  The  triumph  of  man  at  his  moral  task, 
the  equivalence  of  his  spirit  to  his  moral  opportu- 
nity is  through  the  strength  of  the  Eternal.  In 
this  type  of  experience  God  is  known  as  the  ade- 
quate inward  equipment,  as  the  sufficient  grace 
of  the  soul. 

There  is  still  another  way,  the  greatest  of  all 
ways,  I  believe,  of  bringing  to  distinctness  the 
consciousness  of  God.  The  good  is  the  path  to 
God.  Here  we  must  ask.  What  do  we  mean  by 
the  good?  The  answer  is  in  one  word,  satisfac- 
tion. For  man,  for  rational  being  anywhere, 
beyond  perfect  satisfaction  there  is  nothing. 
Truth  is  the  satisfaction  of  the  intellect;  the  in- 
tellect asks  for  nothing  beyond  that.  This  is  the 
truth.  The  intellect  rephes,  "I  am  satisfied." 
The  aesthetic  sense  calls  for  beauty,  and  when 
beauty  comes  it  is  satisfied,  it  asks  for  nothing 


THE  GOOD  AS  THE  PATH  TO  GOD        31 

beyond.  The  conscience  calls  for  right,  and  when 
right  comes  the  conscience  is  satisfied  and  asks  for 
nothing  more.  The  heart  cries  out  for  love  and 
when  that  comes  the  heart  is  satisfied.  Truth  is 
the  satisfaction  of  the  intellect;  beauty  is  the 
satisfaction  of  the  aesthetic  sense;  right  is  the 
satisfaction  of  the  conscience;  love  is  the  satis- 
faction of  the  heart.  All  these  satisfactions 
gather  themselves  into  the  Absolute  satisfaction 
which  is  the  Absolute  good,  the  Absolute  God: 
*'I  shall  be  satisfied  when  I  awake  in  thy  like- 
ness." 

II 

Four  examples,  two  philosophies  and  two  reli- 
gions, will  constitute  four  supporting  arguments 
in  behalf  of  the  validity  and  greatness  of  this  way 
of  bringing  into  clearness  and  power  our  instinc- 
tive sense  of  the  Infinite  mystery  as  our  God. 

Plato  in  his  greatest  Dialogue,  "The  Repub- 
lic," sets  out  to  find  justice.  In  his  quest  and  as  a 
help  he  analyzes  the  human  soul  and  discovers 
that  it  consists  of  three  parts,  —  reason,  spirit, 
appetite.  There  can  be  no  justice  in  the  soul 
unless  each  part  does  its  own  work  and  does  it 
well.  In  that  case,  when  each  does  its  own  part 
and  does  it  well,  there  will  be  harmony  in  the 
soul,  and  that  is  justice  in  the  individual.  Plato 
concludes  that  in  order  to  see  justice  written 


32      ASPECTS  OF  TEE  INFINITE  MYSTEBY 

large,  he  must  organize  a  state,  an  ideal  state,  and 
this  he  does.  He  has  three  classes  in  the  state,  — 
wise  men,  men  of  courage,  the  artisan  class.  Jus- 
tice in  the  state  means  that  each  class  does  its 
own  work  and  does  it  well.  Then  we  have  har- 
mony in  the  state,  as  we  had  harmony  in  the  soul; 
in  each  case  that  is  justice,  individual  and  social. 
Plato  further  discovers  that  it  is  impossible  to 
attain  harmony  in  the  soul,  or  in  the  state,  with- 
out the  vision  of  the  Absolute  Good;  the  Eternal 
satisfaction  is  in  God.  We  must  move  through 
our  psychic  life  and  through  our  political  life  to 
the  Eternal;  when  we  see  God  as  the  Absolute 
satisfaction,  we  are  able  to  come  back  and  or- 
ganize life  personal  and  social  in  light  and  truth 
and  peace.  Here  is  an  example  of  a  great  mind, 
seeking  through  life  the  Absolute  Good;  he  was 
led  in  his  search  to  all  that  he  meant  by  God. 
Good  is  the  satisfaction  of  the  finite  soul;  good  is 
the  satisfaction  of  the  Infinite  soul;  good  is  the 
highest  name  for  God.  Why  callest  thou  me 
good?  There  is  none  good,  save  God.  Good  is 
experience  both  in  the  finite  spirit  and  in  the 
Infinite;  it  is,  in  the  last  analysis.  Infinite  experi- 
ence satisfying  finite  experience;  *'0  satisfy  me 
early  with  thy  mercy." 

Aristotle  in  his  Ethics  asks  the  question,  Wliat 
is  the  chief  good?  In  answer  to  this  question  he 
names  three  different  views  of  good.  The  sensu- 


THE  GOOD  AS   THE  PATH  TO  GOD       33 

alist  holds  one  view,  the  lover  of  honor  another, 
the  philosopher  still  another.  It  is  the  view  of  the 
philosopher  or  wise  man  that  counts.  His  view  is 
that  the  final  good  of  man  is  the  exercise  of  what 
is  highest  in  the  soul;  this  is  mind  on  its  specula- 
tive side,  and  secondarily  on  its  ethical  side.  Mo- 
rality is  the  temporal  form  of  the  pure  spirit,  in 
the  conventions  of  human  society ;  thought  is  ad- 
justed to  reality;  truth  is  the  eternal  interest,  and 
the  highest  development  of  the  rational  soul  is 
the  supreme  good.  The  highest  good  of  man  is 
an  approach,  in  favored  moments,  to  the  eternal 
good  in  the  mind  of  God.  God  lives  in  the  pure 
eternal  vision  of  himself,  as  the  truth  and  per- 
fection of  the  universe.  This  is  not  the  whole 
story.  God  is  the  universal  object  of  desire  and 
love  because  of  his  perfection.  God  as  the  per- 
fect good  or  satisfaction  moves  the  universe;  he 
moves  the  universe  below  man  through  the  desire 
that  does  not  understand  itself,  through  the  de- 
sire whose  issue  would  be  a  share  in  his  life;  he 
moves  the  rational  spirit  of  man  through  love  of 
the  highest,  and  thus  draws  the  soul  to  himself. 
Aristotle  is  another  instance  of  a  great  thinker  — 
a  greater  never  lived  —  setting  forth  in  quest  of 
the  ultimate  satisfaction  and  ending  in  the  vision 
of  God. 

How  great  Aristotle's  thought  is  may  be  seen 
from  the  use  that  Dante  makes  of  it.  Dante*s 


34     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

Beatific  Vision  is  nothing  but  the  idea  of  Aristotle 
in  ecclesiastical  and  poetic  dress.  Further,  if 
Aristotle's  idea  of  God  as  the  ultimate  irresistible 
moving  force  of  the  universe,  moving  all  worlds 
by  his  perfection  —  if  this  idea  were  allowed  its 
full  consistent  expression,  it  would  at  once  cancel 
Dante's  Inferno.  The  power  that  moves  the  poet 
from  his  entrance  into  Hell,  to  his  arrival  among 
those  who  look  upon  the  glory  of  the  Highest,  is 
the  eternal  perfection  of  God;  that  has  almighty 
power;  nothing  can  remain  where  it  began  to  be; 
upward  in  search,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
of  the  Infinite  good,  it  must  rise;  and  if  its  capac- 
ity calls  for  completion,  along  the  highest  level, 
if  it  is  a  soul,  it  can  rest  nowhere  short  of  the 
vision  of  God,  the  final,  complete  satisfaction. 
Dante's  Hell  is  a  logical  blunder,  no  less  than  an 
ethical  horror.  It  is  built  in  the  path  of  a  uni- 
verse, still  more  in  the  path  of  a  humanity  moved 
irresistibly  by  the  Eternal  perfection,  and  drawn 
toward  the  vision  of  that  perfection.  This  is  the 
logic  of  Aristotle's  quest  for  the  good  of  man; 
man's  quest  is  a  sign  that  God's  influence  is  over 
him,  that  the  spell  of  the  Eternal  Mind  is  upon 
him  from  the  first;  the  quest  itself  can  end  in 
final  satisfaction  nowhere  short  of  the  vision  of 
the  Perfect  One. 

These  two  thinkers,  Plato  and  Aristotle,  the' 
greatest,  the  most  original,  the  purest  in  their 


THE  GOOD  AS   THE  PATH  TO  GOD        35 

love  of  truth  in  the  whole  history  of  philosophy, 
can  find  nowhere  short  of  the  Deity,  the  good  for 
which  man  longs,  the  good  for  which  man  was 
made.  The  long  search  for  the  complete  satis- 
faction, through  mistake,  against  ignorance,  in 
struggle  against  delusion  and  folly,  ends  at  last 
in  the  beatific  vision.  So  the  toil  of  these  two 
vast  interpreters  of  our  human  world  ends. 

"We  turn  now  to  the  witness  of  the  two  greatest 
religions.  Buddhism  and  Christianity.  Buddhism 
has  a  profound  and  melancholy  passion  for  the 
good.  The  good  of  Buddhism  is  the  negation  of 
life.  Life  is  desire,  desire  is  will,  will  is  for  that 
which  never  is,  never  can  be;  the  will  to  five  is 
misery.  The  good  of  Buddhism  is  quenched  de- 
sire, the  reversal  of  the  will  to  live,  the  cessation 
of  misery  in  the  cessation  of  being.  Extinction  of 
individual  existence  is  the  final  Buddhistic  beati- 
tude; and  the  path  to  this  beatitude  is  the  path 
of  holiness  and  all  tender  humanity.  If  life  is  evil, 
if  existence  is  a  calamity,  if  the  universe  is  against 
the  lover  of  being,  Buddhism  is  the  profoundest 
and  the  noblest  of  all  religions.  It  is  the  religion 
of  transfigured  despair;  it  is  the  surrender  of  life 
as  misery;  it  is  surrender  by  the  noblest  possible 
method,  the  method  of  selfsacrifice,  humane  serv- 
ice, gentleness,  spiritual  meditation,  transcen- 
dental cancellation  of  existence.  No  God  is  here 
needed,  because  the  good  sought  is  wholly  nega- 


36      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

live.  Buddhism  is,  therefore,  with  complete  con- 
sistency, pure  atheism.  There  is  no  substantial 
soul,  human  or  divine;  all  life  is  illusion,  all  con- 
sciousness is  bitterness  and  woe;  the  descent  to 
complete  extinction  by  the  path  of  holy  love  is 
the  sole  path  of  heart's  ease  and  lessening  pain. 
Buddhism  is  the  monumental  pessimism;  it  is  the 
most  majestic  epic  of  human  melancholy  within 
the  compass  of  history;  it  is  the  via  dolorosa  of 
the  millions  that  have  found  life  to  be  an  insup- 
portable burden,  an  infinite  misery.  Let  us  not 
mock,  rather  let  us  revere;  here  is  something  of  its 
kind  unsurpassed,  unsurpassable.  Fairbairn  has 
written  with  true  insight  and  sympathy  in  these 
words:  " There  is  no  image  so  familiar  in  the  East 
as  his;  he  sits  everywhere,  in  monastery,  pagoda, 
and  sacred  place,  cross-legged,  meditative,  im- 
passive, resigned,  the  ideal  of  quenched  desire, 
without  any  line  of  care  or  thought  to  disturb  the 
ineffable  calm  or  mar  the  sweetness  of  his  unsmil- 
ing, yet  gracious  face;  a  silent  deity  who  bids  the 
innumerable  millions  who  worship  him  become  as 
blessed  by  being  as  placid  as  he  is."  ^  Here  as 
everywhere  good  is  sought;  but  because  the  good 
is  the  negation  of  life  God  is  not  needed;  no  place 
is  left  for  him. 

What  is   Christianity?     Adolf   Harnack  has 
answered  in  one  great  sentence:  "Eternal  life  in 
1  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion,  p.  270. 


THE  GOOD  AS  THE  PATH  TO  GOD       37 

the  midst  of  time,  by  the  strength  and  under  the 
eyes  of  God."  ^  The  goal  of  Christianity  is  the 
Absolute  satisfaction,  the  peace  of  God  that  pass- 
eth  all  understanding;  it  is  life  at  its  maximum  in 
measure  and  quality;  life  freed  from  all  sin,  all 
sorrow,  vexation,  strife;  life  filled  with  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  Infinite  worth,  reconciled,  and 
moving  to  grander  issues  in  the  love  and  service 
of  God.  The  good  that  Christianity  offers  to  the 
world  is  a  share  in  the  Infinite  love  and  peace,  an 
ever-increasing  participation  in  the  hfe  of  God. 
The  city  of  the  living  God;  there  is  the  goal,  the 
eternal  satisfaction  of  the  soul,  according  to  the 
Christian  rehgion. 

Great  religion,  even  more  than  great  philoso- 
phy, lays  open  to  its  depths  the  soul  of  man  and 
the  Soul  of  the  universe.  It  is  the  authentic  mir- 
ror of  the  law  of  man's  spirit  and  the  order  of 
God*s  moral  being.  Christianity  is  greater  than 
Buddhism  because  it  reflects  the  desire  to  live 
inalienable  from  normal  man,  because  it  hallows 
that  desire  out  of  the  Infinite,  supports  it,  guides 
it,  transforms  it  from  selfishness  to  love,  and  sat- 
isfies it  in  God.  Christianity  is  the  epic  of  the 
spiritual  dignity  of  man,  the  insight  that  con- 
verts the  struggle  and  sorrow  of  existence  into 
the  discipline  by  which  the  pilgrim  of  Eternity  is 
purified  and  made  meet  for  the  habitations  of  the 

*  What  is  Christianity,  p.  8. 


88      ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

saints  in  light,  the  grace  that  subdues  all  discords 
to  harmony,  that  makes  man's  work  of  worth  to 
God  and  his  bearing  in  time  of  moment  to  all 
worlds.  Christianity  has  endured,  Christianity 
will  endure,  because  of  its  insight  and  grace; be- 
cause it  lays  open  the  passion  unquenchable  in 
man's  heart  for  good,  and  the  process  of  life,  or- 
dained by  the  Eternal  Spirit.  Deeper  than  all 
deepest  philosophic  teaching  concerning  man's 
nature  and  God's,  is  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  It  has 
come  down  to  us  in  the  form  of  epigrams,  de- 
tached sentences,  single  paragraphs  and  parables; 
even  so  the  authentic  nature  of  man  and  the  an- 
swering Soul  of  the  universe  are  here  mirrored  as 
nowhere  else.  We  cherish  the  work  of  the  great 
philosophers  and  religious  seers  chiefly,  at  least 
when  life  in  its  mystery  and  majesty  is  our  prob- 
lem, as  we  do  the  chorus  that  supports  the  single 
incomparable  voice.  That  single  voice  is  the 
searcher  of  the  depths  and  the  heights;  the  multi- 
tude of  the  great  and  noble  come  to  blend  their 
voices  with  that  of  the  Highest  and  the  Best. 
The  Christian  religion  in  its  insight  and  grace,  in 
its  vision  of  man's  passion  for  good,  and  in  its 
presentation  of  the  heavenly  Father  as  the  Infi- 
nite good,  is  the  ultimate  illumination  and  peace. 
This  insight  and  grace  once  in  the  world,  the 
world  must  thenceforward  be  new.  Christianity 
is  indeed  an  event  in  history,  a  new  birth  of  the 


THE  GOOD  AS   THE  PATH  TO  GOD       39 

Eternal  in  the  past;  it  is  more.  It  discloses  the 
moral  structure  of  our  human  world  today;  the 
constitution  of  humanity  shines  in  its  light,  and 
must  ever  so  shine.  It  is  as  when  at  sea  one  looks 
into  a  glorious  sunset  astern  of  the  ship;  it  is  a 
great  sight,  an  enchanting  backward  vision;  its 
highest  significance  is  that  it  reveals  the  hidden 
glory  of  the  light  through  which  the  ship  has 
sailed  the  entire  day,  through  which  every  ship 
must  sail  every  day,  even  when  clouds  gather  and 
tempests  rise,  from  the  beginning  of  the  voyage  to 
the  end.  Our  contemporary  world  remains  un- 
known till  it  is  seen  in  the  light  and  fire  of  the 
vision  and  passion  of  Jesus. 

The  power  of  religion  is  in  its  insight  and  its 
concreteness.  All  intellectual  power  of  any  ac- 
count addresses  itself  to  experience;  it  seeks  to 
ascertain  the  value  of  experience  as  reality,  and 
reality  as  experience.  Science  is  concerned  with 
sense  experience,  aided  and  extended  by  sense 
instruments;  of  this  sensible  wonder  science  has 
thus  far  been  able  to  give  a  strict  account  of  only 
a  small  part.  Art  addresses  itself  to  aesthetic 
experience;  all  its  insights  are  at  the  service  of  the 
beauty  that  has  arrived  in  the  human  heart;  and 
worlds  beyond  the  discovery  of  Art  are  still  hid- 
den in  that  realm  of  joy.  The  philosophy  of  reli- 
gion is  concerned  with  religion  as  an  experienced 
reahty,  as  a  reality  open  to  experience,  as  the  Di- 


40      ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

vine  reality  in  the  grand  process  of  human  souls. 
All  intellectual  power  detached  from  experience, 
and  otherwise  engaged,  is  but  the  rattle  and  clat- 
ter of  empty  machinery;  the  worth  of  the  reli- 
gious insight  is  that  it  lives  at  the  heart  of  the  reli- 
gious experience.  This  means  that  theory  when  it 
is  outside  the  experience,  the  concrete  reality,  is 
impotent;  it  is  great  only  when  it  is  the  interior 
illumination  of  the  living  order  of  reality;  then 
it  is  like  the  Sun,  placed  at  the  centre  of  the  solar 
system,  whose  light  flows  outward  flooding  all  the 
worlds  that  belong  to  that  system  and  still  going 
forth  on  a  universal  and  endless  journey. 

Nor  must  one  forget  that  while  philosophy 
may  live  an  independent  life,  in  the  great  systems 
of  the  past,  handed  down  from  age  to  age;  that 
while  Art  may  live  in  the  creations  of  beauty 
when  genius  has  become  nameless  and  forgotten, 
religion  can  last  only  as  it  is  renewed  in  the  per- 
sonal experience  of  the  living.  Religion  must  be 
re-born  with  each  new  generation,  in  order  to  live. 
It  is  once  more  inseparable  from  the  character 
of  the  living;  it  is  like  the  evolving  star,  whose 
light  and  heat  are  of  its  essence;  if  the  star  dies 
its  splendor  is  quenched  at  the  source.  For  this 
reason  the  witness  of  great  religion  to  the  struc- 
ture of  the  soul,  its  chief  desire,  the  ways  in  which 
that  desire  may  be  chastened  and  exalted,  and 
the  character  and  bounty  of  the  Infinite,  is  a 


THE  GOOD  AS  THE  PATH  TO  GOD       41 

profound  contemporary  witness.  The  eyes  of 
great  religion  are  always  open;  they  scan  the 
heights,  they  penetrate  the  depths  and  bring 
back  the  most  authentic  tidings  concerning  the 
mystery  of  life  and  the  universe  that  we  know. 

Ill 

Let  us  now  look  for  a  moment  into  the  wild 
heart  of  the  world.  Is  the  world  of  men  in  the 
quest,  the  tremendous  quest  of  the  good?  I 
think  we  cannot  be  wrong  in  giving  an  aflSrma- 
tive  answer  to  that  question.  Consider  the  phe- 
nomenon that  now  confronts  us.  Here  is  the 
man  whose  good  is  money,  chasing  it  every  hour, 
working  himself  sick  to  horde  it  and  to  increase  it. 
What  is  the  motive.^^  He  thinks  that  is  good.  He 
is  chasing  an  illusion,  but  the  illusion  to  him  is 
good.  Here  is  a  man  on  his  way  to  the  grogshop; 
what  takes  him  there?  Satisfaction;  he  thinks  he 
will  find  it  in  his  glass  of  beer  or  his  bottle  of 
whiskey.  You  say  that  is  a  terrible  mistake;  yes, 
but  for  him,  and  for  the  moment  it  is  no  mistake. 
Thus  one  may  take  all  the  foul  unspeakable  life 
of  the  world;  it  is  all  animated  by  the  desire  for 
satisfaction.  One  sees  the  fashionable  woman 
running  from  one  circle  to  another,  wearing  out 
her  nervous  system,  her  temper  and  her  clothes, 
though  she  may  have  a  lot  of  them,  and  may  have 
the  desire  to  display  them  all.  What  is  she  after? 


42     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

She  is  seeking  satisfaction,  good.  We  may  say- 
that  she  is  foohsh;  but  she  thinks  she  is  wise.  We 
see  the  poor  dancing  girl,  if  we  happen  to  go  to 
that  sort  of  a  show,  dancing  her  soul  away  to 
please  those  who  long  for  front  seats  in  the 
crater  of  the  sleeping  volcano  of  vice.  She,  too, 
is  seeking  satisfaction.  That  is  the  tragedy 
of  the  world;  multitudes  of  beings  are  seeking 
good,  that  is,  satisfaction,  where  it  cannot  be 
found. 

There  does  not  seem  to  be  any  human  experi- 
ence answering  to  the  cry:  "Evil  be  thou  my 
good."  To  desire  evil  as  evil  and  for  its  own  evil 
sake  is  an  utter  contradiction;  it  is  indeed  pure 
nonsense.  To  make  one's  good  that  which  is  evil 
to  others  is  a  common  experience;  it  is  what  oc- 
curs in  every  act  of  theft,  dishonor,  selfishness. 
The  will  is,  however,  directed  upon  what  is  or 
seems  good  to  it,  even  if  stealing  a  man's  purse, 
robbing  his  house,  or  killing  him,  is  involved  in 
the  act.  Revenge  and  the  lust  of  murder  are  not 
pursued  as  evil  for  the  will  that  pursues  them;  to 
that  will  they  are  good,  and  the  fact  that  they 
involve  suffering  to  others,  is  either  part  of  the 
good  sought  or  it  falls  out  of  the  main  account. 
That  upon  reflection  the  person  who  indulges  the 
spirit  of  revenge  becomes  more  or  less  aware  that 
his  act  inflicts  injury  upon  himself,  that  experi- 
ence raises  in  the  heart  of  the  bandit  the  question 


THE  GOOD  AS  THE  PATH  TO  GOD       43 

whether  the  lust  of  murder  does  not  involve  the 
lust  of  suicide,  does  not  count  at  the  moment. 
Milton's  Satan,  unless  we  interpret  his  character 
in  a  special  way,  is  an  impossible  person.  Pure 
evil  would  mean  swift  suicide;  the  pure  evil  can- 
not be  an  object  of  desire;  it  must  undergo  trans- 
formation; it  must  appear  as  good. 

The  traditional  conception  of  the  Devil  sorely 
perplexed  the  poet  Burns.  Such  depths  of  wick- 
edness were  past  all  understanding: 

"Hear  me,  auld  Hangie,  for  a  wee. 
And  let  poor  damned  bodies  be; 
I  'm  sure  sma'  pleasure  it  can  gie. 

E'en  to  a  diel, 
To  skelp  an'  scaud  poor  dogs  like  me 

An'  hear  us  squeal." 

The  action  is  possible  through  the  pleasure 
sought;  it  appears  small  to  the  victims,  but  great 
to  the  Devil;  it  is  not  evil  to  him  but  good,  and 
his  action,  while  the  Devil  remains  in  this  mood 
of  abstraction  from  what  is  good  and  evil  to 
others,  is  completely  rational.  That  this  ration- 
ality is  apparent  and  not  real,  that  what  is  pure 
evil  to  others  can  remain  good  to  any  mind  under 
the  discipline  of  experience  is  another  question. 
This  problem  Burns  raises  in  the  last  stanza  of 
the  poem  quoted: 

"But  fare  ye  weel,  auld  Nickie-ben! 
O  wad  ye  tak  a  thought  an'  men' ! 


44     ASPECTS  OF  TUE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

Ye  aiblins  might  —  I  dinna  ken  — 

Still  hae  a  stake: 
I'm  wae  to  think  upo'  yon  den, 

E'en  for  your  sake!" 

The  two  kinds  of  good  are  here  distinguished,  the 
good  of  passion,  and  the  good  of  reason,  the  good 
of  selfish  feeling  and  the  good  of  wisdom,  the 
good  that  is  illusion  and  the  good  that  is  reality. 
In  this  chaos  of  conflicting  goods,  in  this  wild 
mixture  of  illusion  and  truth,  the  world  is  caught. 
There  would  be  no  hope  for  the  world  did  it 
not  desire  essential  good  and  hate  essential  evil, 
did  it  not  possess  the  capacity  for  illumination 
through  reflection,  did  it  not  have  the  power  of 
learning  through  suffering,  and  of  making  the 
exchange  of  the  false  for  the  true. 

The  Greeks  represented  this  world-pursuit 
of  apparent,  elusive,  unreal  good  by  two  myths, 
the  myth  of  Tantalus,  and  the  myth  of  Sisyphus. 
Look  at  the  great  illusion  in  Tantalus.  He  stands 
in  Hades  up  to  the  neck  in  water,  tortured  with 
thirst;  he  stoops  to  drink  and  away  goes  the 
water.  There  is  Sisyphus,  rolling  the  stone  up 
out  of  the  valley,  trying  to  get  it  on  the  mountain 
top,  and  as  he  is  about  to  heave  it  clean  on  high, 
down  it  rolls  into  the  valley  again.  That  is  the 
type  of  the  world,  seeking  satisfaction  where  none 
is  to  be  had;  that  is  the  tragedy  of  man  and  it 
comes  by  mistake.  Nobody  desires  evil,  nobody 


TBE  GOOD  AS   THE  PATH  TO  GOD       45 

desires  to  be  lost;  nobody  wants  to  go  to  hell;  and 
here  is  the  opportunity  of  great  religion,  —  to 
uncover  the  vast  mistake  in  which  men  wallow, 
to  show  that  this  good  is  only  apparent,  not  real. 
The  highest  function  of  all  teachers  is  to  show  the 
profound  and  terrible  mistake  of  the  world,  and 
to  recall  it  from  a  vain  and  woeful  quest. 

Look  now  at  the  contrasted  type,  the  man  who 
rises  every  morning  to  do  his  duty,  to  be  honest, 
and  loyal;  to  do  no  wrong  to  any  human  being,  to 
help  lift  life  wherever  he  goes.  This  man's  satis- 
faction increases  more  and  more  till  the  peace  of 
God  settles  on  his  face  and  operates  as  a  holy 
spirit  in  his  heart.  The  good  sought  through 
wisdom  always  brings  one  nearer  home,  brings 
one  at  last  to  God.  Recall  here  Jesus'  two  build- 
ers, the  man  who  built  his  house  on  the  sand  and 
the  man  who  built  his  house  on  the  rock;  they 
were  both  seeking  good,  a  home,  a  place  for  the 
treasure  of  life.  But  one  built  his  house  on  the 
sand,  and  the  rain  descended  and  the  floods  came, 
and  the  winds  blew  and  beat  upon  that  house, 
and  it  fell.  There  is  the  disappointment,  the  de- 
feat of  life  through  mistake;  there  is  tragedy 
through  mistake.  A  man  who  has  made  a  mis- 
take can  be  taught,  can  be  illuminated;  the  world 
can  be  saved  by  illumination,  by  education,  by 
the  Spirit  of  God.  The  man  who  built  his  house 
upon  the  rock  got  his  satisfaction  through  wis- 
dom; his  good  was  real  and  eternal. 


46     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

We  sometimes  think  of  the  wise  man  and  the 
unwise  as  not  very  far  apart.  They  are  indeed  as 
far  apart  as  they  can  be;  the  reason  that  they  do 
not  appear  as  far  apart  as  height  and  depth  is 
that  most  of  us  are  both  wise  and  fool  together. 
If  you  could  get  a  wise  man  and  if  you  could  get  a 
complete  fool,  it  would  be  clear  that  they  are  as 
far  apart  as  East  and  West.  The  whole  process 
of  spiritual  education  aims  to  get  the  mistake  out 
of  life  and  to  get  the  wisdom  into  life;  and  the 
Eternal  is  standing  behind  all  our  strivings  and 
beyond  all  our  strivings,  revealing  in  the  burden 
and  sorrow  of  our  being  our  vast  mistake;  press- 
ing upon  us  from  himself  wise  thoughts,  vivid 
insights,  pressing  like  the  tide  in  the  river,  mov- 
ing the  volume  of  his  satisfactions  back  into  our 
hearts. 

The  Puritan  objection  to  this  reasoning  is  that 
it  makes  too  much  of  mistake,  too  little  of  the 
perverse  will  of  man,  and  that  it  provides  too  easy 
an  escape  for  the  wicked  to  accord  with  the  in- 
tegrity of  the  moral  order  here  and  hereafter.  As 
to  the  first  count  in  this  indictment,  that  too 
much  is  made  in  this  discussion  of  mistake,  the 
answer  is  that  the  contention  is  supported  by  all 
enlightened  psychology,  ancient  and  modern. 
*'No  one  errs  with  his  will,"  was  the  Socratic 
maxim.  This  maxim  is  subjected  to  the  most 
searching  examination  by  Aristotle  in  the  seventh 


THE  GOOD  AS   THE  PATH  TO  GOD       47 

book  of  his  Ethics,  and  while  he  does  indeed  con- 
siderably amend  the  Socratic  doctrine,  he  is  com- 
pelled by  his  own  analysis  to  confirm  its  general 
soundness.  Psychological  and  ethical  analysis 
today  issue  in  substantial  agreement  with  the 
Socratic  insight.  Education,  enlightenment  as  to 
the  nature  of  the  essential  good  is  our  motto  in 
all  our  work  to  reform  and  uplift  our  fellowmen. 
Perversity  of  will  would  seem  to  be  itself  a  subtle 
form  of  ignorance,  a  twist  of  the  mind  due  to 
entanglement  in  the  meshes  of  an  evil  fascina- 
tion, an  impotency  resulting  from  a  type  of  ex- 
perience essentially  bad,  but  with  certain  unex- 
hausted possibilities  of  pleasure  in  it,  that  rise  up 
and  hide  the  general  and  deep  illusion.  The  psy- 
chology of  the  victims  of  drink,  sensuality,  dis- 
honor, cowardice,  theft,  over-done  egoism  of 
every  sort,  will  I  believe  justify  this  analysis. 
The  whole  thing  is  a  cheat;  yet  the  cheat  is  a 
pleasant  cheat,  and  ignorance  of  the  counter 
experience  backs  for  a  while,  at  least,  the  igno- 
rance that  is  the  subject  of  the  repeated  disap- 
pointment. 

That  the  idea  of  good  as  the  sole  final  interpre- 
tation of  man's  life  provides  too  easy  an  escape 
for  evil-doers,  is  itself  a  profound  mistake.  Men 
commit  suicide  and  men  lose  their  life  by  mis- 
take; different  moods  accompany  the  act;  the 
issue  is  the  same.  Men  kill  their  fellows  through 


48      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

passion  and  men  kill  their  fellows  through  mis- 
take. Again  the  feelings  that  accompany  the  act 
differ  widely,  but  the  result  is  the  same.  The 
world  in  which  we  live  is  a  world  of  law.  The 
house  that  is  set  on  fire  by  the  incendiary  and  the 
house  that  is  burned  by  the  over-turning  of  a 
lamp,  from  the  mistake  of  a  child,  both  are  de- 
stroyed. The  moral  analogue  to  this  has  been 
put  in  these  imperishable  words:  "Be  not  de- 
ceived; God  is  not  mocked;  whatsoever  a  man 
soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap.  He  that  soweth  to 
his  flesh  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption;  he  that 
soweth  to  the  Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  life 
eternal."  ^  There  can  be  no  doubt  about  the  fact 
of  suffering  for  wrong-doing,  whether  the  wrong- 
doing is  held  to  come  from  ignorance  or  from  pure 
perversity  of  will.  The  same  universe  that  is 
heaven  to  the  saint  is  hell  to  the  sinner.  The  real 
question  is,  What  does  the  universe  teach  by  this 
response  of  bliss  to  the  good  man  and  of  woe  to 
the  bad  man?  What  in  each  case  is  the  intention? 
I  can  believe  in  no  other  answer  to  this  question 
than  that  which  says,  the  universe  means  to  give 
light.  It  means  through  joy  to  confirm  the  right- 
eous man  in  his  righteousness  and  through  pain  to 
convert  the  wicked  man  from  his  wickedness;  it 
is  the  movement  of  the  Infinite  in  the  tides  of  woe 
as  illumination,  deliverance  and  freedom.  The 
1  Gal.  6:7. 


THE  GOOD  AS  THE  PATH  TO  GOD       49 

integrity  of  the  moral  order  stands  fast;  it  is  not 
however  a  moral  order  that  is  blind;  it  is  not  fate 
with  cruel  indifference;  it  is  the  heavenly  Father 
of  Jesus  purging  the  sight  of  a  foolish  child  and 
leading  him  homeward,  by  the  path  of  hurricane 
and  fire. 

I  pause  here  to  make  place  for  a  lyric  of  rare 
truth  and  beauty;  a  lyric  that  describes,  with 
fidelity  to  the  sense  of  mystery,  the  movement  of 
the  soul  of  man,  through  time,  in  quest  of  the 
good,  the  good  that  is  only  another  name  for  God. 

"O  stream  descending  to  the  sea, 
'    Thy  mossy  banks  between. 
The  flowerets  blow,  the  grasses  grow. 
The  leafy  trees  are  green. 

**In  garden  plots  the  children  play, 
The  fields  the  labourers  till. 
The  houses  stand  on  either  hand. 
And  thou  descendest  still. 

**0  life  descending  into  death. 
Our  waking  eyes  behold. 
Parent  and  friend  thy  lapse  attend, 
Companions  young  and  old. 

"Strong  purposes  our  mind  possess. 
Our  hearts  affections  fill. 
We  toil  and  earn,  we  seek  and  learn. 
And  thou  descendest  still. 

**0  end  to  which  our  currents  tend. 
Inevitable  sea. 
To  which  we  flow,  what  do  we  know, 
What  shall  we  guess  of  thee?" 


50     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

Only  that  it  is  other  than  our  fears,  brighter  than 
our  most  radiant  hopes,  able  to  greaten  the  vol- 
ume of  our  life  while  we  move  toward  it,  and  by 
its  return  upon  itseK,  able  to  make  us  all  over  at 
last  into  its  own  inviolate  and  mighty  tides.  The 
mystery  of  God  is  indeed  infinite;  it  is  however 
the  mystery  of  Eternal  reality;  it  is  goodness  and 
mercy  transcending  comprehension;  it  is  the 
mystery  that  is  the  goal  of  humanity,  whether 
men  move  toward  it  through  the  vast  discipline 
of  mistake,  treading  the  fiery  path  through  the 
wilderness  of  illusion,  or  whether  they  climb 
homeward  by  the  high,  heroic  way  of  the  wise 
and  dutiful  mind.  Because  all  men  desire  good, 
good  only  and  good  forever,  our  race  carries  in  it 
the  possibility  of  salvation.  The  wise  take  one 
way,  the  unwise  another;  by  a  different  disci- 
pline they  cross  the  sea  of  time;  yet  is  the  struc- 
ture of  the  human  heart  such,  and  the  grace  and 
light  of  the  Infinite,  that  we  may  hope: 

"But  O  blithe  breeze;  and  O  great  seas, 
Though  ne'er,  that  earliest  parting  past. 
On  your  wide  plain  they  join  again, 
Together  lead  them  home  at  last. 

**One  port,  methought,  alike  they  sought. 
One  purpose  hold  where'er  they  fare,  — 
O  bounding  breeze,  O  rushing  seas! 
At  last,  at  last,  unite  them  there!" 


CHAPTER  in 

PERSONALITY   IN   GOD 
I 

The  ancient  distinction  between  the  quick  and 
the  dead  is  a  valid  distinction.  We  are  sure  that 
a  stone  is  without  hfe,  and  we  know  why  we  are 
sure.  In  the  first  place  the  stone  has  no  power  of 
self -movement,  and  in  the  second  place  it  is  with- 
out sensibility.  Everything  that  is  without  the 
power  of  motion  and  without  sensibility  falls  out- 
side the  sphere  of  the  living.  This  distinction 
that  the  power  of  self-motion  and  sensibility  are 
the  infallible  signs  of  life  we  inherit  from  the 
Greek  thinker,  Aristotle.  Wherever  one  finds  the 
power  of  self -movement  and  sensibility,  there  one 
finds  the  signs  of  life. 

As  soon  as  life  appears  in  the  world  mind  ap- 
pears; the  larger  the  quantity  and  the  higher  the 
quality  of  life,  the  larger  is  the  power  and  the 
higher  the  quality  of  mind  that  accompanies  it. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  of  modern  studies  is 
the  presence  of  mind  in  animals;  with  the  growth 
in  the  recognition  of  mind  in  animals  there  has 
naturally  come  the  more  considerate  treatment 
of  them.  The  recognition  of  animal  sensibility 
to  pain  has  at  length  become  a  civilizing  force  in 


52     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

the  life  of  man.  Brutal  must  he  be  who  ignores 
this  kinship  between  his  dog  and  the  members  of 
his  own  household. 

It  would  seem  that  mental  life  in  animals  is  of 
the  kind  that  we  call  instinctive.  It  is  frequently 
mind  in  forms  of  which  we  human  beings  know 
nothing,  like  that  of  the  migrating  bird  or  fish. 
In  general,  mind  in  animals  would  appear  to  be  a 
habit  growing  out  of  sense  perception,  expressing 
an  inherited  tendency  of  unusual  strength.  Hab- 
itual mental  action  conscious  of  itself,  but  with- 
out memory  after  the  action  is  performed,  would 
appear  to  be  the  main  characteristic  of  animal 
intelligence,  and  much  of  our  human  experience 
enables  us  to  understand  this  characteristic.  A 
business  man  comes  home  late,  tired  and  ab- 
sorbed; he  opens  the  door  with  his  latch-key, 
hangs  up  his  coat  and  hat,  goes  upstairs,  and 
after  a  little  winds  his  watch  and  puts  it  under 
his  pillow,  the  usual  place.  A  member  of  his  fam- 
ily, as  a  joke,  calls  out  to  him,  "Why  did  you 
leave  your  latch-key  in  the  door?"  "Did  I? 
How  foolish  I  was!"  "And  why  did  you  not 
hang  up  your  coat  and  hat  in  the  usual  place?" 
"Did  I  not?  I  am  sorry."  "Why  did  you  put 
your  watch  away  without  winding  it?"  "That 
was  stupid  of  me,  was  it  not?"  In  each  case  he 
knew  exactly  what  he  was  doing  at  the  time,  he 
was  completely  conscious  of  it,  but  there  was  no 


PERSONALITY  IN  GOD  63 

memory  of  it,  and  when  the  charge  was  brought 
against  him  which  I  have  just  recited  he  was  un- 
able to  defend  himself. 

This  illustrates  a  great  part  of  the  mental  ac- 
tivity of  the  animal  world;  it  is  clear  at  the  mo- 
ment but  it  is  without  permanent  memory,  and 
this  brings  us  to  the  aspect  of  mind  to  which  we 
give  the  name  personality.  What  do  we  mean  by 
personality  in  man?  The  sense  of  reality  as  a 
rational  and  moral  being,  and  that  sense  reflected 
and  supported  in  a  permanent  memory.  For  ex- 
ample, here  is  a  procession  that  goes  through  a 
hall,  single  file;  the  men,  as  they  go  through,  are 
conscious  that  they  are  going  through  the  hall. 
When  they  have  passed  in  at  one  door  and  out  at 
the  other  there  is  absolutely  no  sign  left  in  the 
hall  that  they  ever  went  through  it.  Now  sup- 
pose that  the  walls  of  that  hall  are  sensitive  pho- 
tographic plates,  and  that  each  human  being  is 
photographed  as  he  passes  through;  the  immedi- 
ate consciousness  is  thus  attested  and  supported 
by  the  memory  of  the  hall.  That  is  our  mental 
life.  From  moment  to  moment  we  perceive  that 
we  are  rationally  and  morally  real;  from  moment 
to  moment  memory  photographs  that  reality; 
we  are  able  in  this  way  to  go  back  through  the 
years  well  on  toward  the  beginning  of  life,  and 
trace  the  reality  through  our  memories.  Memory 
itself  would  seem  to  be  the  registered,  perpetu- 


54     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

ated  successive  consciousnesses  of  our  personal 
reality. 

Can  we  analyze  this  reality  to  which  conscious- 
ness bears  immediate  witness,  which  immediate 
witness  is  attested  by  permanent  memory?  Can 
we  say  what  that  reality  is?  Surely  we  can  say 
something  about  it.  It  would  seem  to  imply 
three  things:  the  vision  of  the  moral  end;  a  pro- 
gramme for  the  realization  of  the  moral  end;  and 
in  the  third  place  a  progressive  realization  in  ex- 
perience and  through  effort  of  the  moral  end. 
The  lost  son  in  the  parable  of  Jesus  cries,  "I  will 
arise  and  go  to  my  father."  There  was  the  father 
and  the  old  home  as  the  goal;  there  was  the  pro- 
gramme to  return;  the  moment  that  he  started 
homeward  there  was  the  progressive  realization 
of  the  end.  Paul  writes,  *'This  one  thing  I  do, 
forgetting  the  things  which  are  behind,  and 
stretching  forward  to  the  things  which  are  be- 
fore, I  press  on  toward  the  goal  unto  the  prize  of 
the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus."  Moral 
goal,  moral  endeavor  and  an  experience  increas- 
ing in  the  wake  of  the  endeavor;  these  are  the 
core  of  the  matter.  Personality  means  at  least 
this:  reality  witnessed  by  immediate  conscious- 
ness, supported  by  memory,  flowing  into  the 
vision  of  an  end  worthy  of  our  best  devotion, 
forming  a  programme  for  the  attainment  of  the 
end,  living  in  an  increasing  realization  of  the  end. 


PERSONALITY  IN  GOD  65 

The  body  is  the  instrument  of  the  personaHty, 
but  it  is  not  the  personahty.  It  is  the  indispensa- 
ble instrument  of  personaUty;  if  we  did  not  have 
a  body  we  should  not  be  in  this  world.  Still  the 
body  is  not  personality,  but  the  servant  of  per- 
sonality. Personality  resides  in  mind,  in  mind 
that  knows  itself  as  mind,  whose  immediate 
knowledge  is  supported  by  memory;  mind  in  the 
vision  of  an  end,  mind  in  the  power  of  devotion, 
mind  in  the  sense  of  a  greatening  moral  experi- 
ence. 

II 

Is  God  personal  in  the  sense  described.'^  Is  he 
mind?  Does  he  know  that  he  is  and  what  he  is? 
Does  he  live  in  the  vision  of  an  eternally  worthy 
end,  eternally  compassed  through  his  will,  eter- 
nally realized  in  his  perfect  experience?  Can  he 
communicate  his  thoughts  to  other  minds?  Can 
other  minds  communicate  their  thoughts  to  him? 
Are  God  and  man  so  constituted  that  each  can 
hear  the  other's  call?  If  so,  God  is  personal  and 
the  only  complete  personality,  as  Lotze  says,  in 
the  universe. 

In  the  thinking  of  man  about  the  Infinite 
there  is  to  be  noted  a  conflict  between  two  oppos- 
ing tendencies,  the  tendency  to  regard  God  as  an 
Individual,  conceived  according  to  the  type  set 
by  the  individual  human  being;  and  the  tendency 


56      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

to  dwell  upon  God  as  infinite,  as  being,  in  the 
highest  sense,  the  sole  real  being  in  the  universe, 
as  in  fact  the  one  substantial  life  to  which  all 
other  forms  of  existence  are  to  be  referred  as 
modes,  as  the  bubble  to  the  stream,  as  the  wave 
to  the  sea,  as  the  light  to  the  sun.  The  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  an  attempt  to  combine 
in  one  faith  both  these  ideas,  to  conceive  God  as 
Individual  and  Transcendent,  and  at  the  same 
time  as  the  indwelling  life  and  soul  of  the  uni- 
verse. The  attempt  to  show  how  these  two  views 
of  God  may  combine,  has  never  so  far  been  a 
philosophical  or  a  dialectical  success.  That  how- 
ever is  a  small  matter;  truth  is  greater  than  rea- 
son; reality  is  not  to  be  limited  to  the  scope  of 
the  finite  mind.  The  many-sidedness  of  being,  of 
supreme  being,  may  be  puzzling,  may  be  indeed 
for  the  understanding,  an  absolute  mystery;  yet 
we  are  not  on  this  account  justified  in  denying 
the  reality  of  any  aspect  of  that  many-sidedness. 
We  must  be  on  our  guard  against  the  consist- 
ency of  the  one-sided  thinker,  however  great  his 
influence  and  fame.  There  is  the  assertion  of  God 
against  humanity,  the  idea  that  God's  greatness 
means  man's  nothingness.  Jonathan  Edwards 
was  impatient  of  any  endeavor  to  limit  God;  he 
came  near  completely  wiping  out  the  reality  of 
man  in  his  treatise  on  the  Will;  with  Edwards 
nothing  can  stand  against  the  glory  of  God.  An- 


PERSONALITY  IN  GOD  67 

other  great  thinker,  Emmons,  who  preached  for 
many  years  in  the  town  of  Frankhn  and  died  at 
the  age  of  ninety-six,  one  of  the  great  men  of  New 
England,  held  that  all  our  exercises,  good  and 
bad,  are  the  product  of  God.  Emmons  so  rea- 
soned because  he  could  not  allow  anything  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  the  grandeur  of  God.  And 
Spinoza  makes  all  men  modes  of  God;  they  have 
no  real  existence;  God  is  the  only  real  being  in 
the  universe.  Here  follows  the  leading  meta- 
physician in  the  English-speaking  world  today, 
Dr.  F.  H.  Bradley.  His  book  on  "Appearance 
and  Reality  "  is  a  plea  for  the  sole  reality  of  the 
one  Absolute  Being.  Bradley  in  his  latest  book, 
"Truth  and  Reality,"  admits  that  God  may  be 
personal,  but  if  so  that  personality  limits  him. 

The  virtue  of  this  over-emphasis  upon  the  life 
of  God  must  not  be  disregarded.  We  owe  to  it 
the  thought  of  God  as  the  indwelling  spirit  and 
life  of  the  world.  The  greater  richness  of  our 
modern  thinking  is  due  to  the  virtue  in  this 
*' Higher  Pantheism,"  as  Tennyson  calls  it. 

**The  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  the  seas,  the  hills  and 

the  plains 
Are  not  these,  O  Soul,  the  Vision  of  Him  who  reigns? 

Speak  to  Him,  thou,  for  He  hears,  and  Spirit  with  Spirit 

can  meet  — 
Closer  is  He  than  breathing,  nearer  than  hands  and 

feet." 


58     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

In  prayer,  it  used  to  be  claimed  by  Calvinists, 
all  men  are  believers  in  the  absolute  sovereignty 
of  God.  This  over-emphasis  of  the  reality  of  the 
One  against  the  many  appears  in  our  hymns, 

*'  Our  blest  Redeemer,  ere  he  breathed 
His  tender  last  farewell, 
A  Guide,  a  Comforter,  bequeathed 
With  us  to  dwell. 
And  every  virtue  we  possess, 
And  every  victory  won. 
And  every  thought  of  holiness 
Are  his  alone." 

The  Pauline,  Augustinian,  Calvinistic,  Edward- 
ian tradition  of  emphasis  upon  the  sovereignty  of 
God  is  apparent  in  this  hymn;  it  is  the  language 
of  feeling  and  accords  with  the  thought  of  John 
Scotus  Erigena,  Bruno,  Spinoza,  Schelling,  Hegel 
and  Bradley.  It  shows  admirably  one  relation  of 
their  conception  of  God  to  the  interior  life  of 
mankind;  it  presents  in  tender  words  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Indwelling  Deity  to  the  whole  circle 
of  human  interests  and  hopes.  Still  it  presents  a 
view  of  God  with  over-emphasis,  a  view  indeed 
shocking  in  its  one-sidedness.  It  runs  counter  to 
one  of  the  surest  axioms  of  the  life  of  the  spirit. 
Shall  a  man  lie  for  God?  There  has  been  an  as- 
tonishing amount  of  lying,  philosophical  and 
theological,  done  in  the  supposed  interest  of  the 
glory  of  God. 
The  opposite  view,  the  idea  that  God  is  to  be 


PERSONALITY  IN  GOD  59 

conceived  as  individual  and  personal,  has,  again 
and  again,  run  into  extremes  that  reduced  God 
to  an  absentee  from  the  universe.  He  is  purely 
transcendental  and  detached;  the  order  of  the 
universe  is  not  his  will;  the  beauty  in  all  worlds 
is  not  the  bloom  of  his  spirit;  the  conscience  of 
man  is  not  his  sanctuary;  the  love  in  human 
hearts  is  not  of  his  inspiration;  human  ideals  of 
goodness  and  truth  and  beauty,  and  the  sublime 
struggle  for  the  highest  are  things  entirely  apart 
from  God's  life.  Upon  all  this  he  looks  from  afar; 
he  is  in  heaven  and  man  is  upon  earth.  The  en- 
tire process  of  the  intellect,  conscience,  heart  and 
creative  will  of  mankind  is  separate  from  God; 
men  work  out  their  own  salvation  with  fear  and 
trembling  for  there  is  no  present  God  to  work  in 
them  to  will  and  to  do.  This  isolation  of  God 
from  man  and  the  universe  would  be  disastrous 
were  men  logical  beings;  even  when  modified  by 
all  benign  inconsistencies,  we  have  here  a  thought 
of  God  that  is  never  without  peril. 

How  can  we  combine  the  idea  of  God  as  both 
transcendent  and  indwelling,  as  other  and  more 
than  the  universe  and  at  the  same  time  in  it? 
On  the  simple  ground  that  both  ideas  are  neces- 
sities of  faith.  Does  personality  limit  God?  It 
does.  It  means  that  we  are  not  God,  and  that 
God  is  not  we.  God  is  not  the  whole  thing;  he 
made  us  and  he  can  unmake  us;  but  he  cannot 


60     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

make  and  unmake  us,  in  the  same  sense  and  at 
the  same  time.  PersonaHty  does  Hmit  God;  it 
denies  that  God  is  everything;  its  relates  him  to 
souls  that  he  made  and  that  are  other  than  he. 
This  sort  of  limitation  is  in  the  nature  of  things. 
Mr.  Bradley  cannot  escape  it.  He  divides  the 
universe  into  Appearance  and  Reality;  the  Ap- 
pearance is  not  the  Reality;  the  Reality  is  not  the 
Appearance.  There  is  a  relation  between  these 
two  differences;  if  relation  limits,  it  must  limit 
from  within  no  less  than  from  without.  The 
Reality  is  limited  by  its  own  appearances;  it  is 
therefore  not  Absolute;  it  is  not  the  whole  of  be- 
ing, it  is  finite.  The  only  scheme  that  could  avoid 
limitation  in  the  universe  would  be  one  that 
should  rule  out  of  the  universe  all  difference, 
all  contrast,  all  relation  of  every  kind.  Such  a 
scheme  would  be,  not  an  account  of  our  universe, 
but  a  pure  hallucination. 

Religion,  the  Christian  religion,  admits  no 
metaphysical  Absolute.  God  and  the  souls  of 
men  are  other  and  different.  He  is  real  and  men 
and  man's  world  are  real.  Christianity  over- 
comes this  dualism  in  its  own  better  way;  it  holds 
to  a  moral  Absolute.  Men  live  and  move  and 
have  their  being  in  God;  through  their  free  con- 
sent, because  of  his  infinite  worth  God  becomes 
all  in  all.  The  metaphysical  Absolute  cancels  the 
reality  of  man  and  man's  world;  the  purely  trans- 


PERSONALITY  IN  GOD  61 

mundane  Deity  reduces  man  and  his  world  to 
practical  atheism.  Christianity  asserts  both  the 
reality  of  the  Infinite  Father,  and  man  his  child; 
it  unifies  these  two  orders  of  existence  in  the 
moral  process  in  time  and  beyond;  its  hope  is 
in  the  moral  absoluteness  of  God  through  his 
increasing  ascendency,  and  one  may  add,  his 
ultimate  moral  sovereignty  in  and  over  all 
souls. 

Ill 

Something  should  be  known  upon  this  pro- 
found subject,  of  the  form  under  which  God  lives, 
from  the  process  of  religious  experience.  Abstract 
reasoning  may  easily  err  here;  metaphysical  pos- 
sibilities and  impossibilities  are,  at  best,  in  a 
region  somewhat  remote  from  the  highest  fact, 
the  soul  of  man  in  its  wrestle  with  God,  and  as 
it  veritably  lives  in  God's  life.  Philosophy  must 
not  be  accepted  when  it  does  violence  to  the  high- 
est experience.  Religion  as  an  experience  is  the 
product  of  two  forces,  —  the  soul  of  man  and  the 
Soul  of  the  universe.  All  religion  that  is  not 
blind  ecstacy,  that  is  not  absorption  and  loss  of 
consciousness  in  the  Deity,  sees  two  sides  in  the 
experience,  —  the  side  of  God  the  all-worthy 
object  of  worship,  and  the  side  of  the  worshipper. 
Even  when  religion  becomes  a  trance,  before  and 
after  the  trance,  that  is  before  the  devotee  has 


62     ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

lost  his  mind,  and  after  it  has  returned  to  him, 
the  duaUty  in  reUgion  is  clearly  recognized.  The 
soul  leads  its  own  life  except  in  those  rare  mo- 
ments when  it  becomes  a  few  unconscious  pulses 
in  the  being  of  the  Eternal.  If  the  state  of  eleva- 
tion were  continued  longer,  it  might  be  that  this 
religious  epilepsy  would  pass  off,  like  any  other 
fit.  Such  an  experience  is  clearly  of  an  abnormal 
type;  it  is  confined  to  people  to  whom  religion  is 
simply  an  intense  emotion.  Unity  with  the  Su- 
preme Being,  even  in  the  highest  moments,  may 
be  a  moral  unity  clearly  reflected  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  human  soul.  Jesus  says,  "  I  and 
my  Father  are  one";  the  unity  is  not  identity;  it 
does  not  mean  that  Jesus  ceases  to  be  Jesus,  that 
he  has  become  a  moment  in  the  soul  of  God.  It 
means  concurrence  of  ideals,  powers,  achieve- 
ments and  hopes  between  Jesus  and  his  Father  in 
heaven.  Two  personalities  in  an  experience  of 
profoundest  moral  union;  that  would  seem  to  be 
the  plain  meaning  of  the  words  of  Jesus.  So  in 
his  hour  of  trial,  "If  it  be  possible  let  this  cup 
pass  from  me;  nevertheless  not  my  will  but  thine 
be  done."  In  the  Lord's  Prayer  the  reality  of 
man  and  man's  world  is  asserted  over  against 
God:  "Our  Father."  The  great  appeal  is  not  for 
the  absorption  of  man's  life  in  God;  it  is  for  the 
moral  sovereignty  of  God's  will  in  the  universe. 
To  cancel  the  integrity  of  the  human  soul  in 


PERSONALITY  IN  GOD  63 

Christian  experience  is  to  make  nonsense  of  the 
whole  thing. 

When  we  enter  the  rehgious  experience  of  ordi- 
nary mortals  the  two  sides  of  religious  reality  are 
seen  to  be  essential.  The  soul  under  the  sense  of 
sin  is  far  from  feeling  that  it  is  a  metaphysicU 
nothing.  Here  personality  becomes  the  clearest, 
acutest  reality:  "Against  Thee,  and  Thee  only, 
have  I  sinned  and  done  this  evil  in  thy  sight." 
The  soul  is  here  conscious  of  its  guilt,  and  con- 
scious of  the  standard  that  measures  its  guilt,  the 
holy  soul  of  God.  The  publican  goes  to  the  Tem- 
ple, stands  afar  off,  will  not  lift  up  so  much  as  his 
eyes  to  heaven,  smites  his  breast  and  cries,  "God 
be  merciful  to  me  the  sinner."  Again  the  human 
personality  is  in  sharpest  relief  against  the  Di- 
vine reality.  The  publican  would  revolt  at  the 
idea  that  his  wickedness  was  a  part  of  the  one 
Ineffable  experience,  and  that  he  was  only  one  of 
the  automatic  actors,  dramatis  personae,  in  the 
tragic  movement  of  the  Eternal. 

The  two  sets  of  experiences,  those  that  belong 
to  man,  and  those  that  belong  to  God,  cannot  be 
ascribed  to  one  susbtantial  being  without  outrage 
to  reality.  There  can  be  nothing  more  real  than 
great  religious  experience;  it  means  on  the  human 
side  the  sense  of  sin,  penitence,  restoration, 
moral  strength,  achieving  power,  growing  har- 
mony between  ideal  and  actual,  and  unlimited 


64      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

hope;  on  the  Divine  side  it  means  compassion, 
forgiveness,  inspiration,  the  relation  of  friend- 
ship, unceasing  help.  It  means  that  God  is  the 
infinite  worth,  and  is  the  subject  of  all  the  ex- 
periences that  go  with  infinite  worth;  again  it 
means  that  man  now  puts  his  trust  in  the  All- 
worthy,  that  his  delight  is  to  live  his  life  in 
the  vision  of  the  All-worthy,  and  pour  out  his 
soul,  at  due  times  and  seasons,  in  adoration  of 
him.  The  union  is  profound;  it  is,  however,  the 
union  of  souls  that  differ,  and  the  reality  of 
their  union  depends  ultimately  on  the  reality  of 
their  difference. 

Religion  according  to  Jesus  is  the  highest 
friendship.  It  is  so  regarded  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. "And  Moses  spake  with  God  face  to  face, 
as  a  man  speaks  to  his  friend."  ^  Is  there  here 
any  light  upon  the  nature  of  the  Infinite  friend? 
Surely  there  must  be.  All  true  friendship  lives  in 
the  power  of  certain  ideas  and  beliefs.  Each 
friend  believes  in  the  reality  of  the  other.  Your 
friend  is  not  a  fiction,  an  imagination,  a  mere 
vision,  a  dream,  —  he  is  a  reality,  —  with  you 
and  other  than  you.  Each  friend  believes  that 
the  other  is  mind  and  that  he  knows  he  is  mind. 
Your  friend  is  not  an  automaton,  he  is  not  a  curi- 
ously wrought  machine,  he  is  not  a  synthesis  of 
bones  and  muscles  and  flesh  and  veins  and  arter- 
1  Exodus  33: 11. 


PERSONALITY  IN  GOB  65 

ies  and  a  nervous  system  minus  a  soul;  he  is  a 
mind.  So  you  believe.  Each  friend  believes  that 
he  can  share  life  with  the  other  friend,  that 
thought  and  emotion  and  innermost  life  can  pass 
from  one  to  the  other.  Your  friend  is  not  a  lake, 
isolated,  nor  an  inland  sea,  tideless;  the  tides 
from  your  soul  may  enter  his  and  the  tides  from 
his  soul  may  enter  yours.  Each  noble  friend  be- 
lieves that  his  friend  has  a  moral  programme  for 
this  world,  a  moral  task,  something  great  and 
significant  to  bring  to  pass,  and  each  friend  meets 
the  other  at  a  greater  depth  because  of  union  in  a 
common  task.  There  are  the  stars  in  the  belt  of 
Orion,  each  set  in  its  own  place  to  illumine  a  bit 
of  the  darkness  of  night,  and  when  they  shine 
together  and  together  scatter  the  night  we  may 
suppose  they  know  one  another  in  that  function 
of  illumination.  These  ideas  and  beliefs  are  in- 
dispensable to  friendship;  —  existence,  existence 
that  knows  itself,  an  existence  that  can  be 
shared,  existence  that  can  enter  fellowship  with 
another  existence  in  the  execution  of  a  noble 
task. 

All  great  religion  lives  in  the  power  of  certain 
ideas  and  beliefs.  Every  truly  religious  soul  be- 
lieves in  the  reality  of  the  soul  of  God.  Your  God 
is  no  fiction,  no  manufacture  of  yours,  no  imagi- 
nation, no  mere  vision  or  dream;  he  is  a  rational 
reality  with  you  and  other  than  you.  Every  truly 


66     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEBY 

religious  soul  believes  that  God  is  mind,  that  he 
knows  he  is  mind,  that  he  is  not  blind  force  or 
mere  law,  or  abstract  destiny,  but  mind,  and  that 
he  knows  he  is  mind.  Every  truly  religious  soul 
believes  that  God's  life  may  be  shared,  that 
something  of  his  life  may  pass  into  the  compass 
of  the  Infinite  consciousness,  and  that  God's 
thought  and  goodness  may  be  shared  to  some 
extent  by  his  finite  devotee  and  worshipper. 
Inevitably  the  river  seeks  the  sea;  the  whole  con- 
figuration of  the  earth  sends  it  thither;  by  the 
momentum  of  its  own  being  it  goes.  Inevitably 
the  great  ocean  seeks  the  river,  lifts  it,  greatens 
it  from  itself  and  draws  it  home.  So  God's  life 
enters  man's  when  man  is  religious;  so  man's  life 
enters  God's  when  man  is  religious.  Every  truly 
religious  soul  believes  that  God  has  a  moral 
programme  for  himself;  eternally  worthy  ideals, 
eternally  won  through  his  will,  that  that  consti- 
tutes his  eternal  beatitude.  And  every  genuinely 
religious  soul  believes  that  God  has  a  programme 
in  time  which  illumines  and  greatens  the  pro- 
gramme of  the  individual  man  and  takes  these 
individual  programmes  up  into  itself  as  it  goes 
onward. 

**  Our  lives  through  various  scenes  are  drawn. 
And  vexed  with  trifling  cares 
While  thine  eternal  thought  moves  on 
Thine  undisturbed  affairs." 


PERSONALITY  IN  GOD  67 

These,  then,  are  the  beliefs  and  ideas  without 
which  rehgion  would  perish  in  an  hour;  the  re- 
ality of  the  Soul  of  the  universe;  the  belief  that 
he  is  mind,  that  his  life  is  sharable  with  other 
souls,  that  he  has  an  eternal  task  forever  done 
and  a  temporal  task  in  the  performance  of  which 
we  may  meet  him  and  know  him  at  a  greater 
depth. 

There  is,  of  course,  mystery  here,  inscrutable 
mystery.  Sense  experience  is  two-sided,  and  yet 
how  very  little  we  know  about  the  reality  of 
nature,  or  how  much  to  ascribe  to  the  influence  of 
the  outer  world  and  how  much  to  impute  to  the 
human  mind  and  its  receptivities.  The  different 
and  even  contrasted  opinions  of  philosophers 
about  nature,  the  conclusions  of  the  idealist,  the 
realist,  and  the  neo-realist  show  how  difficult  the 
subject  must  be.  The  length  of  time  over  which 
the  controversy  extends  is  another  indication  of 
the  complexity  and  subtlety  of  the  problem.  Is 
he  right  who  says  that  nature  is  what  the  senses 
of  the  ordinary  man  declare  it  to  be?  Is  the 
external  world  what  the  idealist  finds  it  to  be,  a 
phase  of  the  Absolute  spirit?  Is  nature  a  sign- 
language  between  the  mind  of  man  and  the  mind 
of  God?  Is  the  physicist  right  in  reducing  the 
mighty  material  order  that  we  behold  to  atoms, 
and  again  to  ions,  till  the  universe  of  matter  is 
stripped  of  extension,  mass  and  weight,  till  it 


68     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

turns  out  to  be  a  collection  of  invisible,  inaudible, 
intangible  energies?  Here  is  the  outer  partner  in 
sense  experience  and  we  find  it  impossible  to 
attain  to  any  one  prevailing  and  universally 
acceptable  judgment  about  the  essential  charac- 
ter of  this  partner  of  our  life.  What  can  one  say 
to  these  things? 

The  mystery  of  nature  must  be  admitted,  the 
obvious  limitation  of  our  knowledge.  But  this  is 
not  the  whole  story.  All  know  that  nature  is  real, 
even  when  unable  to  define  this  reality.  All  con- 
fess that  nature  and  the  human  mind  are  mar- 
vellously fitted  the  one  to  the  other.  Nature 
melts,  in  a  constant  stream,  into  our  five  senses; 
we  live  upon  her  bounty.  Her  facts  are  the  begin- 
nings of  knowledge,  her  hospitality  and  richness 
are  the  basis  of  all  our  economies;  we  discover 
her  laws,  know  her  ways  since  the  beginning  of 
the  world,  and  we  can  predict  with  certainty 
what  she  will  do  tomorrow,  and  how  she  will 
behave  a  year,  a  century,  a  thousand  years  hence. 
She  is  a  source  of  beauty,  and  in  thus  ministering 
to  the  human  spirit  she  lifts  it  beyond  the  mere 
physical  and  economic  levels.  She  is  evidently 
an  embodied  thought,  the  organized  expression 
of  a  Supreme  Will,  and  in  this  way  she  becomes 
the  introduction  to  the  Absolute  mystery  that 
rules  her  and  looks  through  all  her  wonders. 
Thus  it  is,  while  we  cannot  name  nature  to  please 


PERSONALITY  IN  GOD  69 

every  one,  and  while  it  would  be  empty  boasting 
to  pretend  that  we  comprehend  her  character, 
we  know  her  well  enough  to  recognize  her  as  the 
constant  companion  of  our  being  from  birth  to 
death,  to  acknowledge  that  we  have  derived  good 
both  from  her  sweetness  and  austerity,  to  affirm 
that  she  is  a  sure  friend,  always  ready  to  chastise 
our  ignorance,  rebuke  our  recklessness  and  meet 
our  insight  and  loyalty  with  ever  vaster  disclos- 
ures of  power.  Then,  too,  we  may  know  her  im- 
measurably better  bye  and  bye;  that  is  both  the 
scientific  and  the  human  hope  of  the  world  today. 
We  admit  at  once  the  mystery  of  our  spiritual 
experience.  The  divine  side  of  it  is  ultimately 
inscrutable.  But  that  is  not  all.  The  Infinite 
enters  the  soul  of  man  as  vision,  love,  power;  a 
great  life  is  lived  by  the  truly  and  profoundly  reli- 
gious soul,  and  there  is  a  contribution  made  to 
that  life  by  the  Eternal.  Much  lies  in  this  experi- 
ence that  no  man  has  yet  been  able  to  fathom; 
but  some  things  are  clear.  The  human  soul  looks 
wistfully  toward  the  Infinite  as  the  bird  in  the 
nest,  nearly  fledged,  looks  skyward.  For  each  the 
appropriate  reality  is  waiting.  Mind  answers 
mind.  Love  greatens  love.  Life  increases  life. 
Spirit  meets  with  spirit,  penitences  lift  them- 
selves to  the  Eternal  honor  and  Pity,  prayers 
become  avenues  for  the  incoming  strength,  as 
from  the  reservoirs  of  the  Infinite  bounty.  Com- 


70      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

munings  of  heart  with  the  great  Universal  heart, 
trust  in  the  Ultimate  integrity  there  are,  and 
peace  in  the  midst  of  strife,  falls  upon  the  agi- 
tated soul,  as  from  beyond  the  stars.  The  law  of 
the  spirit  of  life  is  clear;  many  things  are  clear, 
one  for  example,  that  God  is  our  refuge  and  help, 
a  present  help  in  time  of  trouble.  We  may  hope 
to  follow  on  to  know  our  God,  in  a  profounder 
experience  to  be  able,  like  one  of  old,  to  wrestle 
the  hidden  secret  into  a  name.  Here  is  our  hope, 
that  with  Jesus  we  may  be  able  to  say,  with  in- 
sight, not  less  than  custom,  with  knowledge,  no 
less  than  faith,  Our  Father;  that  we  may  yet  be 
able  to  join  Paul  in  his  great  discovery,  *'I  know 
whom  I  have  believed."  The  Infinite  partner  in 
the  life  of  our  soul  is  with  us  in  mystery;  in  one 
sense,  surely,  his  presence  is  past  finding  out,  yet 
are  there  great  clear  outlines  and  vast  hopes 
when  religious  experience  deepens  itself  to  the 
depths. 

IV 

When  all  allowances  are  made  for  the  mystery 
of  God  it  must  be  said  that  certain  experiences  of 
religion  seem  to  be  completely  dependent  upon 
the  reality  of  personality  in  God;  and  it  should  be 
added  that  these  experiences  are  of  the  highest 
moment  for  life.  If  God  is  to  be  the  standard 
character  of  the  universe,  as  all  great  religion 


PERSONALITY  IN  GOD  71 

believes,  he  must  be  personal.  His  intellect  is  the 
truth,  his  heart  is  the  love,  his  will  is  the  goodness 
that  is  lifted  up  as  the  standard  of  all  finite  striv- 
ing. Plato  says  that  the  final  end  of  man  is  to  be 
like  God  as  far  as  that  is  possible  for  a  man.  For 
Plato  God  is  the  standard  character  of  the  uni- 
verse, and  what  illumination  there  is  here  for  all 
human  life,  what  dignity  and  peace  in  the  tumult 
of  our  strivings  one  need  not  say. 

Jesus  said,  "Ye  shall  be  perfect  as  your  heav- 
enly Father  is  perfect."  Endless  time  for  an  end- 
less task;  God  the  standard  character  of  the 
universe  and  all  human  life  in  pursuit  of  an 
ever-greater  share  in  the  eternal  truth  and  the 
eternal  loveliness;  here  is  the  Eternal  light.  The 
great  cry  of  the  Psalmist  is,  "I  will  lift  up 
mine  eyes  unto  the  mountains;  From  whence 
shall  my  help  come?  My  help  cometh  from  the 
Lord,  Who  made  heaven  and  earth."' 

The  apostle  of  Jesus  first  says,  "Be  ye  imita- 
tors of  me";  then,  "Be  ye  imitators  of  Christ."  ^ 
Jesus  carries  the  imitation  to  the  highest,  "Be  ye 
imitators  of  God."  That  is  the  method  of  all 
great  religion;  it  is  the  deepest  principle  in  Chris- 
tianity that  always  seeks  to  conform  human  life 
to  the  Infinite.  The  fundamental  idea  is  that  the 
Soul  of  the  universe  is  the  pattern  for  all  souls. 

If  God  is  to  understand  our  life  at  all,  and  if  we 
1  Ps.  121 : 1-2.  2  Philippians  3 :  17,  2 :  5. 


72      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

are  in  any  way  to  transcend  our  poor,  human 
depressions,  it  would  seem  that  God  must  be 
personal.  Take  the  classical  expression  of  great 
religion  in  the  103d  Psalm: 

"He  will  not  always  chide; 
Neither  will  he  keep  his  anger  forever. 
He  hath  not  dealt  with  us  after  our  sins. 
Nor  rewarded  us  after  our  iniquities. 

As  far  as  the  east  is  from  the  west, 

So  far  hath  he  removed  our  transgressions  from  us. 

Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children, 

So  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear  him. 

Remembereth  that  we  are  dust." 

Could  any  one  coin  such  words  of  light  and  fire 
out  of  anything  else  than  the  sense  of  the  compas- 
sionate soul  of  God  entering  the  darkened  and 
troubled  souls  of  men?  These  wondrous  words 
flow  not  from  a  bare  notion,  but  from  a  unique 
religious  experience.  The  experience  is  a  confes- 
sion of  something  that  has  become  a  reality  in  the 
life,  —  God's  understanding  soul,  his  sympathy 
and  compassion.  These  experiences  are  either 
one  of  two  things,  they  are  either  pure  illusions  or 
they  are  authentic  witnesses  of  the  comprehend- 
ing mind  of  God. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  beatitude  of  great  reli- 
gion is  to  get  beyond  the  merely  human  point 
of  view.  When  the  prophet  of  the  exile  makes 


PERSONALITY  IN  GOD  73 

the  announcement  of  the  contrast  between  the 
thoughts  of  God  and  the  thoughts  of  his  people, 
he  has,  in  his  discovery,  to  some  extent  at  least, 
transcended  the  earthly  point  of  view. 

"For  my  thoughts  are  not  your  thoughts, 
neither  are  your  ways  my  ways,  saith 
the  Lord.  For  as  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the 
earth,  so  are  my  ways  higher  than  your  ways, 
and  my  thoughts  higher  than  your  thoughts." 

With  this  accords  the  religious  experience  of 
Christian  men;  they  obtain  a  mind  above  the 
world,  and  they  would  say  with  the  poet  Daniel, 

"unless  above  himself  he  can 
Erect  himself,  how  poor  a  thing  is  man." 

What  is  this  but  the  life  that  throbs  in  the  great 
words  of  Augustine:  "Thou  hast  made  us  for 
thyseK  and  we  are  restless  till  we  repose  in  thee," 
Our  human  life  is  in  the  valley.  The  sunlight 
comes  so  late,  the  sunlight  goes  so  soon,  the  shad- 
ows are  so  deep,  and  the  stars  over  head  are  so 
few.  But  there  is  the  mountain  summit  with  the 
great  observatory  upon  it;  then  the  world  in  light 
is  at  our  feet  and  the  great,  solemn,  clean,  pure 
starlit  universe  spread  open  to  our  eyes.  Religion 
comes  into  the  depths  to  tell  men  that  God  is 
pity,  to  lift  them  up  to  the  height  where  they  may 
feel  the  unfailing,  infinite  majesty  of  God's  plan 
for  the  world.  Search  the  gospels  through  and 
not  a  syllable  of  pessimism  can  one  find  in  the 


74     ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

teaching  of  Jesus.  When  everything  was  going 
to  wreck,  his  word  was,  *' Heaven  and  earth  shall 
pass  away  but  my  word  shall  not  pass  away." 
If  worship  is  to  be  anything  short  of  a  farce  it 
must  be  offered  to  Self-conscious  Mind,  Self- 
conscious  Worth.  Unless  given  as  a  tribute  to 
the  Infinite  soul,  the  homage  of  the  religious 
world  is  nothing  but  a  sad  superstition.  The 
sign  of  the  tobacconist  used  to  be,  an  Indian 
figure,  standing  in  front  of  the  shop,  glistening 
with  varnish,  grinning,  and  holding  in  one  hand 
a  bunch  of  cigars.  We  have,  all  of  us,  at  times, 
paused  to  admire  those  fine  Indian  gentlemen, 
but  no  one  of  us  ever  was  so  foolish  as  to  think 
of  trading  with  them.  When  they  are  in  their 
senses,  men  do  not  trade  with  wooden  images. 
Many  of  us  have  seen  that  illustrious  piece  of 
sculpture,  the  Venus  of  Milo,  in  the  great  French 
gallery  in  Paris,  and  we  have  admired  the  mar- 
ble as  moulded  by  Greek  genius,  for  its  dignity, 
its  freedom  from  everything  base,  its  complete 
womanhood;  but  again  no  man  in  his  senses  ever 
thought  of  falling  in  love  with  that  piece  of  mar- 
ble. There  is  no  possible  reciprocity  between  the 
Venus  of  Milo  and  man's  soul;  she  is  only  a  piece 
of  stone,  after  all. 

It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  apostrophe  is 
not  worship.  Recall  here  what  Byron  says,  to  the 
stars. 


PERSONALITY  IN  GOD  75 

**Ye  stars!  which  are  the  poetry  of  Heaven  ye  are 
A  beauty  and  a  mystery." 

The  stars  hear  not,  heed  not  the  poet's  homage. 
Take  the  same  poet's  more  famous  apostrophe  to 
the  ocean: 

"Roll  on,  thou  deep  and  dark  blue  Ocean  —  roll! 
Ten  thousand  fleets  sweep  over  thee  in  vain; 
Man  marks  the  earth  with  ruin  —  his  control 
Stops  with  the  shore. 

Unchangeable  save  to  thy  wild  waves'  play  — 

Time  writes  no  wrinkle  on  thine  azure  brow  — 

Such  as  creation's  dawn  beheld,  thou  roUest  now.  ' 

/'Thou  glorious  mirror,  where  the  Almighty's  form 
Glasses  itself  in  tempests;  in  all  time, 
Calm  or  convulsed  —  in  breeze,  or  gale,  or  storm. 
Icing  the  pole,  or  in  the  torrid  clime 
Dark-heaving;  —  boundless,  endless,  and  sublime  — 
The  image  of  Eternity  —  the  throne 
Of  the  Invisible;  even  from  out  thy  slime 
The  monsters  of  the  deep  are  made;  each  zone     • 

Obeys    thee;    thou   goest   forth,    dread,  fathomless, 
alone." 

Magnificent  poetry  indeed;  but,  if  it  is  addressed 
only  and  solely  to  the  Atlantic  ocean  it  is  en- 
tirely thrown  away.  And  if  we  put  in  place  of 
God  an  infinite  ocean  of  being,  our  prayers, 
our  praise,  our  worship  addressed  to  it  are  pure 
vanity.  If  worship  is  to  be  a  great,  sincere,  rea- 
sonable exercise,  it  involves  the  reality  of  the 


76      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

soul  that  offers  it,  and  the  reahty  of  the  Soul  that 
receives  it. 

We  return  to  the  two-sidedness  of  great  reli- 
gion. Buddhism  is  great  religion;  it  is  one-sided; 
and  does  not  this  fact  destroy  the  value  of  the 
testimony  of  the  two-sided  religion?  It  does  not 
appear  so  to  me.  Buddhism  is  the  religion  of 
despair.  It  has  made  the  discovery  that  there  is 
no  Infinite  worth  in  all  the  universe  to  worship. 
It  has  found  that  the  universe  is  Godless  and 
helpless,  that  life  is  misery,  because  life  is  will, 
and  will  is  misery  because  there  is  and  can  be  no 
satisfaction  for  the  will  to  live.  It  has  further 
found  that  the  great  beatitude  is  to  cease  to  be  as 
swiftly  and  surely  as  possible,  that  this  is  impos- 
sible except  by  the  path  of  holiness  and  loving 
service.  The  ethics  of  Buddhism  are  surely  lofty, 
but  they  are  unapproved  by  the  universe;  they 
are  somewhat  reduced  in  value  when  they  are 
looked  at  as  a  device  for  the  achievement  of 
psychic  suicide.  With  all  their  beauty  and  sweet- 
ness the  moral  maxims  of  this  great  religion  are  a 
means  to  a  somewhat  selfish  end,  to  be  relieved 
of  the  burden  of  being.  The  reply  would  be,  of 
course,  that  this  is  the  best  that  poor  souls  can 
do;  it  is  justified  by  the  nature  of  the  case.  I 
grant  it;  but  the  previous  question  returns,  May 
not  Buddhism  be  in  error  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
case?    Is  it  not  precisely  because  Buddhism  is 


PERSONALITY  IN  GOD  77 

one-sided  that  it  is  the  great  rehgion  of  despair? 
If  it  would  let  the  Infinite  into  life  and  allow  the 
Eternal  to  record  his  will  and  power  there,  per- 
haps the  nature  of  the  case  might  appear  one  of 
boundless  hope,  and  not  as  now,  one  of  absolute 
despair.  The  vast  and  fatal  error  of  Buddhism  is 
here:  it  is  a  one-sided  religion. 

The  mood  of  James  Thomson  is  one  of  scorn, 
altogether  different  from  the  good  Buddhist; 
still  the  question  arises  when  he  speaks,  Is  he 
right  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  case?  Let  us 
hear  him  state  his  findings : 

"O  melancholy  brother,  dark,  dark,  dark! 
O  battling  in  black  floods  without  an  ark! 
O  spectral  wanderers  of  unholy  night! 
My  soul  hath  bled  for  you  these  sunless  years. 
With  blood-drops  running  down  like  tears  : 
0  dark,  dark,  dark,  withdrawn  from  joy  and  light ! 

"My  heart  is  sick  with  anguish  for  your  bale; 
Your  woe  hath  been  my  anguish;  yea,  I  quail 
And  perish  in  your  perishing  unblest. 
And  I  have  searched  the  heights  and  depths,  the 

scope 
Of  all  our  universe,  with  desperate  hope 
To  find  sure  solace  for  your  wild  unrest. 

"  And  now  at  last  authentic  word  I  bring 
Witnessed  by  every  dead  and  living  thing; 
Good  tidings  of  great  joy  for  you,  for  all; 
There  is  no  God;  no  Fiend  with  names  divine 
Made  us  and  tortures  us;  if  we  must  pine. 
It  is  to  satiate  no  being's  gall." 


78     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

With  such  a  discovery,  Thomson's  mood  seems 
to  be  much  more  in  accord  than  the  mood  of  the 
Buddhist.  The  only  thing  that  might  change 
Thomson  from  scorn  to  love  would  be  the  further 
discovery  that  love  is  the  only  path  to  quenched 
desire,  and  therefore  the  only  way  out  of  the 
City  of  Dreadful  Night. 

The  fatal  error  in  all  Thomson's  melancholy  is 
that  he  is  prejudiced,  preoccupied,  closed  to  fur- 
ther light;  that  this  Universe  gets  no  chance  or  a 
poor  one,  to  say  what  it  is,  and  what  it  can  do  for 
the  soul  of  man.  The  experience  embodied  in  the 
lines  quoted,  is  a  one-sided  experience;  it  has  in- 
deed a  tragic  human  value,  but  as  a  record  of 
reciprocity  of  being  between  man  and  the  Infinite 
it  has  no  value  at  all.  It  is  to  be  ruled  out  as 
pathological. 

It  must  be  noted  that  religion  and  art  differ  in 
essence.  Art  is  always  and  legitimately  a  one- 
sided experience.  When  one  looks  upon  a  glorious 
sunset;  when  one  considers  a  great  work  of  art, 
one  does  not  even  raise  the  question  of  one's 
value  for  the  beauty  that  is  beheld,  or  the  possi- 
bility of  its  knowing  of  the  admiration  felt  for  it 
in  the  sensitive  soul.  Beauty  floods  the  mind, 
alike  from  the  face  of  nature  and  of  art,  from  the 
Matterhorn  and  the  Great  Pyramid,  the  beauty 
that  knows  not  itself,  the  beauty  that  has  no 
being  save  in  the  mind  of  the  lover  of  beauty;  as 


PERSONALITY  IN  GOD  79 

an  experience  this  wonder  of  sesthetic  emotion  is 
subjective,  it  involves  no  reciprocity;  it  is  one- 
sided. There  are  conditions  beyond  the  mind 
that  make  this  beauty  possible  for  experience: 
but  they  hide  themselves  from  the  human  mind. 
It  is  enough  for  the  artistic  feeling  to  be  met  and 
to  be  satisfied;  it  is  enough  to  be  made  to  forget, 
for  a  few  great  moments,  the  sordidness  and 
trouble  of  the  world,  in  the  consciousness,  the 
radiant  consciousness  of  loveliness. 

Art  is  not  religion,  nor  is  religion  ever  normal 
when  it  approaches  the  nature  of  art.  Spinoza's 
disinterestedness  is  shown  in  the  famous  line,  in 
which  he  sums  up  his  religion,  "He  that  truly 
loves  God  must  not  desire  that  God  should  love 
him  in  return."  It  is  very  noble  in  Spinoza  to  feel 
and  to  write  in  this  way,  but  why  should  Spinoza 
deny  to  God  the  nobility  of  loving  worth  in  a 
human  soul  when  it  appears  there?  The  truth  is 
Spinoza  puts  the  lover  of  God  far  above  the  God 
that  he  loves.  Spinoza's  lover  of  God  loves  God 
because  he  is  worthy;  and  the  philosopher  thinks 
it  a  compliment  to  God  to  relieve  him  of  the  ob- 
ligation of  loving  worth  in  the  human  lover  of  it. 
This  will  never  do.  It  is  religion  under  the  form 
of  art;  it  is  the  one-sided  religion  in  which  the 
Eternal  gets  no  chance  or  a  poor  one  to  tell  his 
name  and  declare  his  character. 

In  great  religion  God  and  man,  the  Soul  of  the 


80      ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

universe  and  the  human  soul  meet  in  the  process 

of  life  at  its  utmost  tension;  it  is  there  and  not  in 

an  abstract  philosophy  that  the  reality  on  either 

side  of  the  experience  is  most  clearly  disclosed. 

There  are,  of  course,  many  moods  and  phases  of 

religious  feeling;  there  is  room  for  the  austere 

lines, 

"Great  God  how  infinite  art  thou, 
What  worthless  worms  are  we, 
Let  the  whole  race  of  creatures  bow 
And  pay  their  praise  to  thee." 

Our  days  are  as  an  handbreadth,  our  foundation 
is  in  the  dust,  we  are  crushed  before  the  moth; 
cease  from  man  whose  breath  is  in  his  nostrils,  are 
expressions,  which  might  be  multiplied  indefi- 
nitely, of  man's  nothingness  in  the  presence  of  the 
Eternal.  The  ninetieth  Psalm  is  one  long  incom- 
parable lament  over  this  aspect  of  life.  Still,  when 
religion  moves  upward  from  mere  sentiment  into 
the  sphere  of  moral  purpose,  then  always  the 
personality  of  man  is  greatened  in  the  personality 
of  God.  When  crisis  after  crisis  comes,  and  the 
human  soul  meets  its  hour  of  trial  in  the  sense  of 
the  Infinite  helper,  the  reality  of  the  soul  receives 
astonishing  accentuation.  The  temptation  of 
Jesus  is  the  supreme  example.  He  went  into  it 
with  a  vision  of  the  meaning  of  his  life  as  the  Son 
of  God;  he  came  out  of  it  with  a  Gospel  for  man- 
kind.  The  accentuation  of  personality,  in  deep 


PERSONALITY  IN  GOD  81 

religious  experience,  is  written  on  every  genuinely 
religious  document  in  all  history.  This  accentua- 
tion is  two-sided;  it  is  objective  and  subjective; 
it  falls  upon  the  personality  of  God  and  upon  the 
personality  of  man,  as  in  Matheson's  great  hymn: 

"O  Love  that  will  not  let  me  go, 
I  rest  my  weary  soul  in  Thee; 
I  give  Thee  back  the  life  I  owe. 
That  in  Thine  ocean  depths  its  flow 
May  richer,  fuller  be. 

**0  Light  that  followest  all  my  way, 
I  yield  my  flickering  torch  to  Thee; 
My  heart  restores  its  borrowed  ray. 
That  in  Thy  sunshine's  blaze  its  day 
May  brighter,  fairer  be. 

*'0  Joy  that  seekest  me  through  pain, 
I  cannot  close  my  heart  to  Thee; 
I  trace  the  rainbow  through  the  rain. 
And  feel  the  promise  is  not  vain 
That  morn  shall  tearless  be. 

"0  Cross  that  liftest  up  my  head, 
I  dare  not  ask  to  fly  from  Thee; 
I  lay  in  dust  life's  glory  dead, 
And  from  the  ground  there  blossoms  red 
Life  that  shall  endless  be." 


CHAPTER  IV 

FATHERHOOD  IN  GOD 
I 
It  is  well  to  remember,  as  we  face  the  most  fun- 
damental, and  the  most  precious  of  all  Christian 
beliefs,  that  all  views  of  the  Infinite  are  of  the  na- 
ture of  interpretations.  It  is  well  to  remember, 
too,  that  on  the  surface,  there  is  much  to  justify 
the  several  views  that  are  in  contradiction  to  one 
another.  Those  who  find  the  Ultimate  thing  in 
the  universe  to  be  matter,  are  interpreting  the 
Ultimate  through  their  bodily  life;  those  who 
take  the  Ultimate  to  be  blind  Force  or  Fate,  con- 
strue the  mystery  through  Will  abstracted  from 
intelligence;  those  who  conclude  that  the  Eternal 
is  mind,  but  impersonal  mind,  use  as  the  instru- 
ment of  interpretation  mind,  alienated  from  the 
form  in  which  we  know  it,  personal  mind;  they 
who  believe  in  God  as  a  bare  unit,  a  pure  egoist, 
employ  the  individual  man  as  their  standard, 
while  they  who  find  in  the  Deity  a  social  nature, 
the  basis  of  the  social  nature  of  mankind,  look  at 
God,  as  Jesus  did,  through  the  family  relation. 
There  is  no  way  of  ai)proaching  the  Supreme  real- 
ity except  in,  and  through,  and  by  the  nature  of 
man.    It  is  either  this  phase  of  our  human  na- 


FATHERHOOD  IN  GOD  83 

ture  or  that,  —  body,  will,  mind,  the  egoistic 
man;  or  it  is  the  entire  man,  the  social  soul  which 
we  employ  as  our  standard  of  interpretation. 

It  is  not  implied  here  that  the  process  is  in  any 
case  arbitrary.  The  thinker  who  believes  that 
the  Ultimate  reality  is  matter,  in  the  sense  of 
chemistry,  or  physics,  does  indeed  use  the  phase 
of  his  experience  which  we  call  body  as  the  me- 
dium of  his  appreciation;  but  he  thinks  he  is  jus- 
tified in  his  procedure  and  conclusion  by  the 
facts  of  scientific  observation.  The  idea  of  the 
universe  as  Will  cannot  be  understood  apart 
from  the  consciousness  of  will,  in  the  thinker;  still 
this  thinker  insists  that  the  one  feature  in  the 
Infinite  that  appeals  to  him  is  will,  nothing  more, 
nothing  other,  nothing  less.  The  case  stands  the 
same  with  all  the  other  varieties  of  interpretation. 
There  is  no  approach  to  a  possibility  of  knowing 
what  lies  beyond  us  except  through  some  phase 
of  our  own  experience;  but  the  phase  of  our  expe- 
rience selected  need  not  be  an  arbitrary  selection. 
It  may  be  a  selection  made  in  pure  homage  to 
that  which  we  take  to  be  the  truth,  or  the  nearest 
approach  to  the  truth  possible  to  mortal  men. 

Here  we  raise  another  question.  Since  all 
things  that  exist,  exist  by  the  Will  of  the  Infinite, 
which  power  within  our  life,  or  without  our  life, 
yet  falling  within  our  experience,  shall  we  select 
and  employ  as  our  principle  of  getting  at  the  Su- 


84      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

preme  character  of  the  Eternal?  Shall  we  employ 
the  whole  confused  mass,  and  say  all  is  God,  and 
God  is  all?  The  result  will  be  unethical  panthe- 
ism. Shall  we  use  the  lowest  that  we  know,  and 
declare  that  the  essence  of  being  is  the  atom,  or 
that  which  goes  to  make  the  atom?  The  result 
will  be  that  the  basis  of  all  highest  life,  science, 
art,  love,  wisdom,  is  an  unthinking  somewhat. 
Shall  we  select  something  higher,  mind,  but  re- 
fuse to  think  of  it  as  magnanimous  and  compas- 
sionate mind;  shall  we  hold  with  J.  S.  Mill  that  it 
is  mind,  but  mind  clearly  unequal  to  the  task  of 
perfecting  the  universe?  The  issue  will  be  a  pale, 
ineffectual  theism,  capable  indeed  of  organizing 
as  helper  of  this  cosmic  mind,  laboring  with  a 
task  too  great  for  it,  the  resolute  and  audacious 
spirits  among  men,  but  utterly  incapable  of  in- 
spiring worship,  winning  trust,  imparting  con- 
solation, and  creating  hope.  Shall  we  begin  by 
doing  homage  to  the  Infinite  mystery?  Shall  we 
begin  by  laying  it  down  as  an  axiom  that  God 
must  be  as  good  as  his  own  best  work?  Shall  we 
go  on  to  declare  that  the  best  work  of  God  known 
to  us  is  the  soul  and  the  ministry  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth?  Shall  we  contend  that  God  must  be 
as  good  as  Jesus,  as  much  on  the  side  of  human- 
ity? Shall  we  make  the  great  venture  of  constru- 
ing the  character  of  the  Eternal  mystery  through 
the  highest  that  we  know?    If  we  make  this 


FATHERHOOD  IN  GOD  85 

choice,  the  issue  will  be  essential  Christianity  as 
our  philosophy  of  life,  as  our  confession  of  faiths 
We  must  at  this  point  ask  another  perplexing 
question.  How  do  we  know  that  there  can  be  any 
progress  in  thought?  On  what  ground  are  we  jus- 
tified in  holding  that  one  body  of  opinions  is 
nearer  the  truth  or  further  from  the  truth  than 
another?  Here  is  a  body  of  traditional  opinion;  if 
you  wish  to  upset  or  abolish  that  body  of  opinion, 
on  what  ground  is  your  wish  or  your  effort  to 
be  approved?  Christians  have  inherited  certain 
beliefs  from  the  past  about  God  and  about  God's 
dealing  with  mankind.  There  is  the  Calvinistic 
system.  Another  order  of  thought  is  rising  out 
of  the  troubled  life  of  our  time  opposing  and 
supplanting  that  older  Calvinistic  belief.  Why 
should  the  new  set  of  opinions  be  nearer  the  truth 
than  the  old?  On  what  ground  do  we  claim  ad- 
vance for  one  set  over  another?  Is  there  any 
other  test  than  like  or  dislike?  Consider  any 
group  of  human  beings  in  a  church,  and  a  large 
number  of  them  in  other  respects  intelligent  peo- 
ple, but  stupid  here,  will  say,  **I  prefer  the  faith 
of  my  mother  and  my  grandmother,  my  uncle 
and  my  aunt,  to  this  innovation.*'  Such  persons 
prefer  a  sentiment  to  the  use  of  their  intelligence; 
they  run  their  business  by  their  judgment  and 
their  religion  by  an  inherited  feeling.  Like  and 
dislike  are  here  the  only  sure  tests  of  truth. 


86      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

If  we  appeal  to  the  Bible  and  say  here  is  the 
test,  we  get  into  new  difficulty.  There  is  the  God 
of  Israel  who  sanctioned  the  extermination  of 
the  Canaanites;  there  is  the  God  and  Father  of 
Jesus:  which  is  the  true  view  about  the  Infinite? 
There  is  the  pessimism  of  Ecclesiastes  and  there 
is  the  Gospel  of  John:  which  is  the  truth  about 
human  life?  There  are  the  imprecatory  psalms: 
**  Happy  shall  he  be,  that  taketh  and  dasheth  thy 
little  ones  against  the  rock,"  ^  and  there  are  the 
Beatitudes.  Which  is  the  truth?  Both  views  are 
in  the  Bible. 

We  here  discover  that  a  fundamental  principle 
is  necessary  in  order  that  we  may  know  when  we 
are  retrograding  in  belief  and  when  we  are  ad- 
vancing, and  that  fundamental  principle  is  the 
perfect  goodness  of  the  Deity,  the  absolute  love 
of  God.  That  is  the  assumption  of  Christian 
faith.  It  cannot  be  proved.  There  is  much  to  be 
said  in  its  favor,  but  it  is  still  left  in  mystery. 
Without  that  assumption  Christian  faith  could 
not  last.  The  perfect  character  of  the  Infinite  ex- 
plains all  that  is  best  in  man's  nature,  individual, 
domestic,  communal ;  it  underlies  all  that  is  great- 
est in  the  heroism  of  history,  all  that  is  richest  in 
the  life  of  the  Christian  centuries;  it  is  the  mas- 
ter-light of  all  our  seeing,  and  it  accounts  for  the 
life  of  the  Perfect  man,  Jesus.  Without  this  as- 
1  Ps.  137:9. 


FATHERHOOD  IN  GOD  87 

sumption  that  the  Deity  is  perfect  we  cannot 
decide  between  one  set  of  opinions  and  another. 
With  this  assumption  as  a  standard  we  may  hope 
to  revolutionize  the  world  and  finally  expel  every 
base  superstition,  every  unworthy  belief,  every 
thought  that  degrades  the  character  of  God  and 
the  character  of  man  in  the  presence  of  God. 

Consider  for  a  moment  how  this  principle  has 
operated.  The  idea  of  the  God  and  Father  of 
Jesus  is  finally  getting  into  the  mind  of  our  lead- 
ing Christian  people.  Look  how  it  has  met  and 
expelled  the  opinions  that  I  am  about  to  name. 
Within  one  hundred  years  it  was  held  in  this  city 
of  Boston,  and  all  over  the  Christian  world,  that 
those  who  died  without  having  heard  of  Jesus  in 
this  life,  without  having  accepted  him  as  their 
Saviour,  were  turned  into  eternal  hell.  They  had 
no  chance  to  hear  him,  they  had  no  opportunity 
to  accept  him,  they  did  not  know  that  he  ever 
existed,  but  that  made  no  difference.  Take  for 
example  our  greatest  missionary  society,  the 
American  Board,  the  society  that  is  in  the  van- 
guard of  our  world  service  today.  It  was  founded 
by  men  who  believed  that  God  was  carrying  the 
wicked  people  of  the  world  on  a  Niagara  current 
to  their  doom,  and  that  Christian  people  on  earth 
must  speed  to  outspeed  God.  Less  than  one 
hundred  years  ago  babies  were  baptized,  as  Ben- 
jamin Franklin  was  in  the  Old  South  Church  in 


88      ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

Boston  two  hundred  years  ago,  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble after  they  were  born  that  they  might  avoid 
perdition  in  case  they  died  in  infancy.  Of  all  the 
uncounted  millions  of  human  beings  that  have 
lived  in  this  world  only  the  elect  were  saved  and 
the  rest  went  to  their  doom.  Further,  among 
church  members,  among  decent,  devout  people, 
only  those  who  were  consciously  converted,  who 
had  a  distinct,  conscious,  religious  experience, 
had  any  reason  to  believe  that  they  were  ac- 
cepted of  God;  further,  it  was  held  that  all  reli- 
gions outside  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  were  idola- 
tries, and  hateful  to  God. 

These  opinions  reigned  in  New  England  and 
elsewhere  within  a  hundred  or  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years.  They  have  all  gone.  What  has  driven 
them  to  their  doom?  The  presence  of  the  mind  of 
Jesus,  with  his  great,  fundamental  principle  of 
the  absolute  love  of  God.  The  conviction  has 
spread  that  no  idea  is  to  be  admitted  as  true 
which  degrades  the  character  of  the  Infinite 
Being. 

We  note  here  what  we  have  a  right  to  demand 
of  our  religious  teachers.  I  sometimes  think  that 
any  mountebank  can  go  into  any  church,  and  if 
he  is  a  glib  talker,  that  he  can  carry  any  congrega- 
tion with  him.  Serious  men  and  women  will  say. 
Was  he  not  great?  Against  this  sort  of  calamity 
we  must  appeal  to  our  tests.    We  must  ask,  Does 


FATHERHOOD  IN  GOD  89 

a  teacher  of  religion  deepen  religious  feeling,  aug- 
ment the  power  of  the  Christian  heart  as  it  bears 
upon  the  will  in  its  fight  with  evil?  Does  he  add 
to  the  volume  of  worthy  feeling  and  to  the  power 
of  worthy  purpose?  Is  he  a  creator  under  God 
of  a  great  religious  experience?  That  is  the  first 
test;  and  the  second  is  this,  Does  he  exalt  the 
mind  in  all  its  thinking  about  the  character  of 
God?  Does  he  fill  this  exalted  mind  with  a  deter- 
mination to  admit  no  idea  as  true  that  degrades 
the  conception  of  God,  that  blasphemes  his  per- 
fect Love? 

If  these  two  things  were  demanded  by  all  our 
churches  of  their  religious  teachers  there  would 
be  fewer  clowns  and  showmen  in  the  Christian 
pulpit.  I  do  not  speak  thus  to  give  an  opinion  in 
advance,  but  I  ask  the  reader  to  judge  on  this 
principle  every  revivalistic  adventurer  who  may 
come  to  town.  Many,  in  their  large  charity, 
wonder  if  after  all  he  may  not  be  heaven-sent 
as  well  as  heaven-born.  Let  men  ask  them- 
selves these  two  questions :  Does  this  new  apostle 
deepen  in  the  soul  the  finest  Christian  feeling? 
Does  he  add  to  the  power  of  the  will  against  every 
kind  of  evil?  Does  he  help  one  to  hate  not  only 
lust  but  lies,  not  only  foul  living  but  foul  speech; 
does  he  exalt  one's  intelligence,  elevate  all  one's 
thoughts  of  God  and  all  one's  thoughts  of  man's 
world  as  it  lies  in  the  sunlight  of  God's  presence? 


90     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

II 

When  we  approach  God,  we  recognize  at  once 
that  he  is  known  as  Omniscient  Mind,  Almighty- 
Will,  Absolute  Spirit,  Eternal  Ground  of  all  that 
is,  and,  as  the  Nicene  Creed  says,  magnificently, 
"Almighty  Maker  of  all  worlds,  visible  and  in- 
visible." These  are  some  of  the  great  designa- 
tions by  which  God  is  known.  We  have  for  God 
a  higher  name;  He  is  our  Father,  our  Father  in 
heaven,  the  Infinite  Father  of  mankind. 

What  do  we  mean  by  Fatherhood  in  God?  In 
the  first  place  we  use  Fatherhood  as  a  symbol. 
We  take  the  highest  feeling  in  the  heart  of  a 
human  father,  his  feeling  for  his  children,  of  love, 
of  tenderness,  of  compassion,  of  loyalty,  and  we 
use  that  as  a  symbol;  we  read  through  this  hu- 
man feeling  the  feeling  of  God  toward  mankind. 
The  Psalmist  says,  "Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his 
children,  so  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear 
him."  1  The  Psalmist  takes  the  highest  human 
feeling,  holds  it  up  as  a  symbol,  and  reads  the 
feeling  of  God  toward  men  in  that  way.  So  the 
prophet  reasons,  "Doubtless  thou  art  our  father, 
though  Abraham  be  ignorant  of  us,  and  Israel 
acknowledge  us  not."  ^  The  feeling  of  father- 
hood in  man  is  here  the  symbol  through  which  we 
read,  irrespective  of  human  ignorance  and  the 
iPs.  103:13.  2Isa.  63:16. 


FATHERHOOD  IN  GOD  91 

place  we  occupy  in  time,  God's  feeling  toward 
men  as  his  children.  And  so  Jesus  says,  "Our 
Father,  who  art  in  heaven."  The  first  meaning 
therefore  of  Fatherhood  in  God  is  symbolic;  the 
purest  parental  affection  is  taken  as  a  guide,  an 
index  of  God's  feeling  for  mankind. 

In  the  second  place,  amid  infinite  differences 
between  God  and  man,  there  are  certain  funda- 
mental, everlasting  identities  between  them. 
We  are  thinkers;  so  again,  as  the  Psalmist 
says, 

**How  precious  are  thy  thoughts,  O  God! 
How  great  is  the  sum  of  them! 
If  I  should  count  them  they  are  more  ia  number 
than  the  sand: 
When  I  awake,  I  am  still  with  thee." 

Thinker  here  answers  to  Thinker,  the  finite  to 
the  Infinite.  Here  is  one  identity  covered  by 
fatherhood.  Further,  every  normal  man  is  a 
moral  idealist;  till  he  becomes  a  moral  idealist  he 
is  not  a  man.  Every  normal  person  has  a  moral 
purpose  to  be  expressed  through  his  thought,  his 
feeling,  his  action;  a  moral  programme  to  be  em- 
bodied in  his  career;  a  moral  character  to  be  won 
and  imbedded  in  his  life  as  a  rational  accountable 
spirit;  a  moral  ideal  to  be  pursued,  to  be  served, 
and  as  far  as  possible,  to  be  overtaken.  We  con- 
clude that  the  true  man  is  a  moral  idealist.  So 
1  Ps.  139  :  17-18. 


92     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

we  conceive  God;  so  the  grand  old  hymn  repre- 
sents him: 

"Our  lives  through  various  scenes  are  drawn. 
And  vex'd  with  trifling  cares: 
While  thine  eternal  thought  moves  on 
Thine  undisturbed  affairs." 

We  are  poor,  weak,  inconstant,  vagrant,  moral 
idealists;  God  is  the  steady.  Eternal  Idealist;  he 
is  at  once  eternal  ideal  and  eternal  fulfilment. 
That  is  another  identity  between  God  and  man 
covered  by  Fatherhood  in  God.  Here  is  still 
another.  Every  normal  parent  seeks  a  mind  of 
wisdom  and  a  heart  of  tenderness  toward  his  chil- 
dren. Thus  we  conceive  God,  so  we  mean  when 
we  call  him  Father;  he  has  a  mind  of  infinite 
wisdom  and  a  heart  of  infinite  tenderness  toward 
the  children  of  men  as  his  children.  The  second 
meaning,  therefore,  of  Fatherhood  in  God,  is  that 
amid  infinite  contrasts  between  God's  being  and 
man,  there  are  certain  fundamental  and  abiding 
identities. 

In  the  third  place  we  mean  by  Fatherhood  in 
God  that  he  is  the  responsible  Author  of  our  hu- 
man life.  There  is  something  very  great  in  this. 
What  is  the  foundation  of  our  feeling  as  father, 
what  is  the  foundation  of  our  obligation?  That 
we  are  the  responsible  author  of  the  life  of  another 
human  being  like  ourselves.  Here  is  the  most 
solemn  obligation  that  can  be  laid  upon  the  con- 


FATHEBHOOD  IN  GOD  93 

science  of  a  human  being.  What  do  we  owe  that 
Hfe  whose  responsible  author  we  are?  Protection, 
enhghtenment,  education,  the  highest  moral  in- 
fluence that  we  can  bring  to  bear  upon  it.  One 
finds  it  hardly  possible  to  overstate  the  obliga- 
tion of  a  parent  to  a  child  on  the  physical  level, 
on  the  intellectual  level,  and  on  the  spiritual  level. 
This  is,  from  every  point  of  view,  the  most 
tremendous  thing  in  the  life  of  mankind;  a  bad 
parent  is  the  closest  approach  to  the  worst  evil 
that  we  can  name;  a  bad  parent  is  about  the 
meanest  wretch  looked  down  upon  by  the  sun, 
or  carried  by  the  travelling  earth  through  space. 
A  parent  is  the  responsible  author  of  the  life  of 
another  and  therefore  under  the  most  sacred 
obligation  to  care  for  that  life. 

We  apply  this  to  God.  As  I  have  looked,  for 
more  than  forty  years,  upon  the  reasonings  of 
men  concerning  the  character  of  God,  I  have  met 
apologies  for  God  that  were  the  deepest  insults. 
God  can  do  as  he  pleases;  so  can  any  rascal  if 
he  has  plenty  of  power.  Whatever  God  does  is 
right;  exactly  what  any  blackguard  might  say 
when  he  desired  to  justify  his  course  in  tormenting 
mankind.  These  apologies  for  God  I  call  simply 
well-meant  blasphemies.  God  is  the  responsible 
Author  of  the  being  of  mankind,  and  as  such  he 
is  under  infinite  obligations  to  the  race  that  he 
has  made. 


94      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

I  confess  that  I  stand  nowhere  more  at  peace 
than  I  do  on  this  ground.  When  I  imphcate  the 
honor  of  God,  and  involve  his  whole  character 
with  the  tragedy  of  time,  I  am  sure  that  I  am 
rendering  him  the  homage  of  the  absolute  truth; 
I  thus  declare  my  belief  that  he  will  stand  by  his 
infinite  obligation  to  his  rational  creatures  in  this 
world.  K  that  is  not  homage  I  do  not  know  the 
meaning  of  the  word. 

If  a  man  tells  me  I  can  do  as  I  please,  and  that 
whatever  I  do  is  right,  I  know  he  is  a  liar,  and  that 
he  is  not  praising  but  insulting  me.  If  a  man  tells 
me  I  am  under  solemn  obligation  in  the  whole 
circle  of  relations  in  which  I  stand,  that  it  will  be 
ill  with  me  unless  I  honor  my  obligations  and  dis- 
charge my  duties,  that  man  strengthens  me  and 
honors  me  through  and  through.  We  honor  God 
only  when  we  reverently  hold  him  as  the  respon- 
sible Author  of  the  world's  being,  and  recognize 
his  obligation  to  human  souls. 

In  the  fourth  place  we  mean  by  Fatherhood  in 
God  that  our  lives  are  essential  to  the  meaning  of 
his.  Take  again  as  example  a  human  father  at 
his  noblest.  Does  he  love  only  his  strong  chil- 
dren, his  bright  children?  Does  he  wish  his  weak, 
dull  children,  his  children  who  are  easily  tempted 
and  led  into  sin,  to  go  to  the  wall?  This  mood 
is  simply  the  utmost  blasphemy  against  the  best 
in  humanity.    Suppose  we  approve  the  will  to 


FATHERHOOD  IN  GOD  95 

power,  and  suppose  we  mean  by  power  physical 
might;  in  that  case  we  initiate  a  movement  back 
to  the  blackest,  the  foulest,  the  crudest  kind  of 
barbarism.  The  will  to  power  so  understood  is 
the  doctrine  of  a  man  who  has  shed  his  humanity. 
A  father,  the  nobler  he  is,  cares  for  the  weak  as 
well  as  the  bright,  and  if  there  is  a  particularly 
ungifted,  unfavored,  handicapped  member  of  his 
family,  his  heart  goes  out  to  that  one,  in  un- 
wonted tenderness. 

The  essentiality  of  men  to  God  is  on  this  basis. 
The  feeblest  rational  being,  the  most  wayward, 
the  being  smitten  with  the  greatest  outward  ca- 
lamity, and  sunk  under  the  weight  of  the  great- 
est inward  calamity,  is  under  the  special  care  of 
the  Highest;  if  God  is  the  Father  of  men,  all  souls 
are  essential  to  the  meaning  of  his  life ;  thus  I  am 
as  sure  of  human  immortality  as  I  am  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God.  Every  new  grasp  that  I  get 
on  the  Fatherhood  of  God  is  a  new  assurance  that 
souls  live  forever.  If  we  can  believe  that  human 
souls  are  essential  to  the  meaning  of  God's  life,  we 
may  rest  assured  of  the  immortality  of  man.  It  is 
well  to  recall  the  wail  of  a  typical  father,  "Me 
have  ye  bereaved  of  my  children:  Joseph  is  not, 
and  Simeon  is  not,  and  ye  will  take  Benjamin 
away."  In  that  case  the  meaning  of  his  life  was 
gone.  That  is  the  universal  human  truth;  the 
meaning  of  a  parent's  life  is  gone  if  permanently 


96      ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

bereaved  of  children.  What  is  true  in  man  at  his 
best,  our  faith  in  the  Fatherhood  of  God  says  is 
true  of  God  always. 

Once  more,  Fatherhood  in  God  means  that  he 
and  he  alone  knows  what  is  best  for  man.  All  the 
difficulties  that  men  must  face,  all  the  heavy  bur- 
dens that  they  must  bear,  all  the  loneliness  and 
the  desolation  of  life,  are  to  be  illumined  by  the 
faith  that  he,  and  he  alone,  knows  what  is  best; 
as  our  world  runs  through  the  hours  of  the  day 
and  as  it  enters  the  dark  at  sunset  the  great  uni- 
versal force  that  controls  it  in  the  light  controls 
it  in  the  dark,  guides  it  through  the  unillumined 
hours,  even  when  pelted  with  storms  and  racked 
with  hurricanes,  guides  it  through  the  sombre 
shadows  into  the  light  of  the  morning.  In  joy, 
success,  fulfilment  of  desire,  growth  along  all  the 
lines  of  our  aspiration,  we  are  able  to  recognize 
that  God  is  good;  God  is  our  Father  in  these  ex- 
periences. That  is  only  half  of  human  life;  when 
we  confess  the  Infinite  Father  we  must  look  for 
his  purpose  in  the  darkness  as  in  the  light; 

''The  sun  set 
And  all  the  ways  were  dark." 

Yet  the  old  world  kept  on  its  way,  preserved  by 
the  benignity  of  the  over-ruling  powers.  In  the 
experience  of  every  human  being,  the  day  is  fol- 
lowed by  the  night,  and  faith  in  the  Fatherhood 
of  God  means  that  this  order  is  best. 


FATHEEUOOD  IN  GOD  97 


III 

On  what  grounds  do  men  believe  in  the  Father- 
hood, or  absolute  love  of  God?  To  me  existence 
seems  an  evidence  of  the  love  of  God,  because  it 
is  good  to  be  alive.  The  Buddhist  and  the  modern 
pessimist  would  deny  that  existence  is  good;  they 
would  claim  that  it  is  evil  and  the  source  of  all 
evil.  I  believe  that  both  are  in  error,  and  that  the 
pessimist  is  not  serious  in  his  contention  or  if  seri- 
ous that  he  is  speaking  out  of  a  devitalized  body 
or  a  manhood  wasted  in  sin.  Besides,  these  pessi- 
mists marry,  and  bring  children  into  the  world, 
which  they  would  not  do,  if  they  believed  exist- 
ence to  be  an  incurable  misery.  The  only  logical 
programme  for  the  pessimist  is  suicide.  Life 
wisely  understood  and  reverently  regarded  is  a 
vast  good. 

Even  if  we  hold  that  in  giving  us  existence 
God's  love  is  unwise  love,  still  it  would  appear  to 
be  love.  Everywhere  creative  power  comes  up 
out  of  the  fountain  of  love.  Consider  Phidias 
working  on  his  head  of  Jove,  Michael  Angelo 
hewing  out  the  great  form  of  his  Moses,  Raphael 
painting  his  immortal  Madonna;  in  each  case  the 
glow  upon  the  artist's  face  reveals  the  love  that 
inspires  the  brain  and  guides  the  hand.  All  crea- 
tive activity  in  all  departments  of  our  civiliza- 
tion has  this  origin;  —  in  music,  architecture. 


98     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

sculpture,  painting,  poetry,  —  it  is  love  that 
guides  genius,  supplies  motive,  and  goal.  Even 
in  the  arts  that  are  not  fine  this  contention  is 
true;  political  institutions,  achievements  in  sci- 
ence, great  organization  of  human  thought,  in 
theology  and  in  philosophy,  all  have  their  primal 
impulse  in  love. 

Passing  to  the  world  of  life  we  find  that  the 
lower  animals  are  actuated  by  this  instinct. 
Watch  a  hen  brooding  her  young,  or  an  eagle  cov- 
ering her  nest;  the  same  instinct  works  in  both. 
You  note  the  domestic  animals,  the  dog  and  the 
cat,  and  their  fondness  for  their  offspring.  You 
observe  the  same  passion  at  work  in  the  lion  and 
the  tiger.  It  seems  to  be  a  law  of  nature,  that 
w^herever  creatures  have  the  power  to  give  exist- 
ence to  another  creature  of  their  kind,  they  are 
laid  under  necessity  to  love  what  they  have 
brought  into  being. 

When  we  come  to  human  beings  the  case  is  not 
otherwise.  All  normal  human  beings  love  their 
children  with  a  love  that  now  resembles  the  rip- 
ples of  the  sea  on  the  beach  in  a  perfect  calm,  and 
again  like  the  great  sea  in  tempest;  a  love  that  is 
mild  as  a  summer  day,  and  then  that  goes  in  the 
fury  of  a  great  passion.  Human  beings  are  laid 
under  the  necessity  of  loving,  serving,  defending 
that  which  they  have  brought  into  being. 

Thus  analyzing,  and  thus  understanding  the 


FATHERHOOD  IN  GOD  99 

creative  instinct  in  man  and  in  the  brute  world, 
I  judge  that  because  God  made  us  he  loves  us. 
We  came  up  out  of  the  impulse  of  his  creative 
good  will;  having  brought  us  hither,  I  judge  that 
he  loves  us,  now  with  the  breath  that  is  perfect 
peace  and  again  with  the  fires  and  hurricanes  of 
his  Eternal  truth. 

Another  evidence  of  God's  love  for  mankind  I 
find  in  the  power  which  he  has  given  to  men  to 
improve  their  existence.  Human  existence  is  not 
complete  when  it  comes  from  the  Creator's  hand; 
it  is  then  like  the  gold  as  it  comes  from  the  mine. 
It  is  theirs  to  make  it  like  the  gold,  fit  for  the  mint. 
Our  bodily  life  is  susceptible  of  great  increase  in 
efliciency,  and  in  vitality;  wisely  treated  our 
physical  being  may  be  for  the  most  part  a  distinct 
joy.  The  senses  may  be  trained  in  acute,  alert, 
accurate,  rich  observation;  when  so  educated 
they  add  to  the  volume  and  worth  of  our  con- 
scious existence.  Memory  may  be  so  enlarged 
that  it  shall  become  a  kind  of  granary  for  the  win- 
nowed wisdom,  the  gleaming  truth  that  men 
have  hitherto  harvested  in  the  fields  of  time. 
Imagination  may  be  so  amplified  and  elevated 
that  men  shall  be  able  to  dwell  among  the  uni- 
versal forms  of  beauty.  Men's  judgments  may 
become  sound  and  true,  disinterested  and  wise, 
and  as  such  become  large  and  essential  forces  in 
the  worth  of  existence.   Above  all,  human  char- 


100      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

acter  may  pass  from  egoism  to  a  noble  altruism, 
from  self-seeking  to  a  great  and  pure  love.  This 
power  which  the  Creator  has  lodged  within  man 
of  taking  his  existence  from  the  creative  hand 
and  improving  it,  is  to  me  another  evidence  that 
God  loves  the  life  that  he  has  made. 

Another  evidence  still  of  God's  love  for  man  I 
find  in  the  power  which  he  has  given  to  him  of 
making  his  escape  from  the  trouble,  the  tragedy 
of  the  world.  Perhaps  examples  here  are  better 
than  mere  statement;  there  is  the  great  hero  of 
the  Old  Testament,  Job.  We  find  him,  at  first, 
prosperous,  wealthy,  with  a  large  and  happy  fam- 
ily; he  is  famous,  the  centre  of  the  homage  and 
fidelity  of  his  world.  That  is  one  picture.  We  see 
him  again,  and  this  time  under  repeated  disaster, 
with  his  prosperity  gone,  his  family  annihilated, 
his  fame  no  more,  and  in  place  of  the  confidence 
and  homage  of  the  community,  their  suspicion 
and  contempt.  In  the  heart  of  it  all  we  hear  him 
singing,  "The  Lord  gave  and  the  Lord  hath 
taken  away;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord"; 
again,  "Though  he  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in 
him."  That  man  had  found  a  path  out  of  woe 
into  the  world  of  peace. 

It  may  be  said  that  this  is  an  ideal  and  not  a 
reality.  Let  us  then  go  to  reality;  we  find  it  in  a 
confession  made  by  a  Hebrew  prophet,  wrung  out 
of  his  soul  in  the  midst  of  the  calamities  that  were 


FATHEEUOOB  IN  GOD  101 

coming  upon  his  race  and  upon  all  that  he  held 
dear.  '*For  though  the  fig  tree  shall  not  flourish, 
neither  shall  fruit  be  in  the  vines,  the  labour  of 
the  olive  shall  fail  and  the  fields  shall  yield  no 
food;  the  flock  shall  be  cut  off  from  the  fold,  and 
^  there  shall  be  no  herd  in  the  stall;  yet  will  I  re- 
joice in  the  Lord,  I  will  joy  in  the  God  of  my  sal- 
vation."^ Here  is  a  path  of  escape  from  a  world  of 
sorrow  authenticated  through  the  biography  of  a 
real  man. 

The  tragedy  of  history  is  seen  at  its  blackest  in 
the  experience  of  Jesus.  He  did  the  world  its 
greatest  service;  he  deserved  of  it  its  best  homage 
and  its  highest  consideration.  His  reward  was  to 
be  crucified  between  two  thieves,  to  be  crushed 
out  of  the  world  as  a  malefactor.  How  did  he 
bear  himself  in  his  world  of  inversion  of  values, 
and  blackest  tragedy?  The  answer  is  in  these 
words,  "Father  forgive  them;  for  they  know  not 
what  they  do."  "Father  into  thy  hands  I  com- 
mend my  spirit."  When  we  read  the  great  trage- 
dies of  the  world,  and  find  characters  looming  up 
all  light  against  the  background  of  gloom  and 
terror,  are  they  to  be  taken  as  mere  dreams  of 
the  imagination,  and  not  as  revelations  of  the 
freedom  and  peace  which  are  open  to  man  in  his 
world  of  tragedy.?  Because  God  has  given  to  man 
this  additional  power,  this  power  of  escape  from 
1  Hab.  3 :  17-18.    Print  from  English  Revision. 


102     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

the  tragedy  of  the  world,  I  judge  that  he  loves 
man;  loves  him  not  in  a  sentimental  or  near- 
sighted way,  —  loves  him  as  the  general  loves  a 
hero  whom  he  sends  through  the  thunder  and  fire 
of  battle,  that  on  the  other  side  in  victory  he  may 
see  that  hero's  face  again. 

Still  another  evidence  of  God's  love  I  take  to 
be  the  friends  whom  he  has  sent  to  enrich  our 
lives.  To  an  educated  and  noble  mind  all  become 
friends  who  have  done  great  things  for  this  world 
of  ours.  Take  for  example  all  the  great  interests 
of  man,  industrial,  political,  artistic,  philosophic, 
religious.  Look  at  the  great  spirits  who  have 
made  our  world  what  it  is,  whose  genius  and 
power  set  others  to  work,  the  outcome  of  whose 
industry  is  our  present  habitable,  civilized  and 
prophetic  world.  The  educated  mind,  thus  ex- 
panded through  education,  takes  into  its  friend- 
ship and  solace  these  mighty  ones  of  the  earth. 
The  educated  person  may  go  forth  every  day 
with  the  light  of  this  standard  upon  his  spirit, 
with  a  sense  of  life's  dignity  won  in  the  presence 
of  this  world  character  and  achievement.  Good 
men  are  able  today,  as  in  all  past  ages,  to  thank 
God  for  the  friends  he  has  sent  them,  historic 
and  contemporary.  Friendship  is  an  immemo- 
rial witness  for  the  love  of  God  and  the  God  of 
love. 

I  judge  that  God  loves  men  because  of  the 


FATHERHOOD  IN  GOD  103 

hopes  which  he  permits  them  to  entertain.  It  is 
a  great  thing  to  have  a  hope.  As  I  go  about 
among  people,  the  thing  that  seems  to  me  to 
make  old  age  pathetic  beyond  words,  is  that  hope 
for  this  world  is  nearly  exhausted.  Therefore,  if 
the  lamp  of  hope  can  be  replenished  in  some  way, 
if  that  light  can  burn  more  and  more  brightly, 
not  only  will  it  add  to  the  worth  and  joy  of  exist- 
ence, but  it  will  become  an  evidence  of  his  Char- 
acter, who  supports  and  who  feeds  existence.  We 
are  permitted  to  entertain  the  hope  that  this 
world  shall  become  one  day  the  realization  of 
truth  and  righteousness.  We  are  permitted  to 
hope  that  some  day  there  will  be  a  new  heaven 
and  a  new  earth  wherein  righteousness  shall 
dwell;  that  "Sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee  away,*' 
*'The  ransomed  of  the  Lord  shall  return  with 
everlasting  joy  upon  their  heads."  We  are  per- 
mitted to  entertain  that  hope  for  our  kind;  only 
those  in  whom  the  hope  is  strong  know  what  it 
means  for  existence  to  be  thus  provided. 

We  are  permitted  to  entertain  the  hope  that 
we  may,  individually,  make  some  small  contri- 
bution toward  the  coming  of  a  better  state  of 
society  in  time.  The  exhilaration  that  issues  from 
this  hope,  and  from  the  endeavor  initiated  and 
sustained  by  it  is  among  the  purest  and  most 
abiding  of  all  human  satisfactions.  Men  need 
not  be  fanatics,  or  blind  optimists  to  possess  this 


104     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

hope;  sympathy  for  human  beings,  the  passion  to 
reUeve  distress  and  the  purpose  to  create  power 
in  the  distressed,  are  the  sole  quahfications 
needed.  In  all  the  humane  professions  this  hope 
is  a  creative  hope;  it  is  the  fountain  of  the  chief 
civilizing  energy  of  the  world;  the  indulgence  of 
this  hope,  in  service,  is  the  spring  of  the  best  life, 
and  the  purest  happiness  of  our  time,  and  it  does 
not  fail  because  it  is  fed  from  the  God  of  hope. 
If  it  be  said  compassion  and  compassionate  activ- 
ity are  instincts,  I  reply  that  instincts  of  this  sort 
are  the  inheritance  from  the  godly. 

We  are  permitted  to  entertain  a  hope  for  the 
world  to  come.  Here  there  is  more  agitation  and 
more  concealed  unbelief  than  anywhere  else  in 
the  whole  Christian  creed;  more  fear  lest  death 
end  all,  more  suspicion  that  beyond  the  grave 
there  is  nothing.  If  I  may  speak  for  myself,  if  I 
may  take  my  existence  as  an  evidence  of  the 
love  of  God,  my  power  to  make  my  existence 
good  as  an  additional  evidence  of  the  love  of 
God,  my  capacity  to  escape  from  trouble  and 
woe  as  still  another  evidence  of  God's  love  for 
men;  if  I  may  read  God's  heart  through  the 
friends  whom  he  has  sent  me;  if  I  may  entertain 
the  dream  of  a  better  world  in  time,  for  future 
generations,  and  serve  that  better  world  as  it  lives 
in  my  dream,  I  seem  to  myself  to  have  massed  a 
great  body  of  impressive  evidence  in  favor  of  the 


FATHERHOOD  IN  GOD  105 

goodness  or  Fatherhood  of  God.  If  I  am  right  in 
this  view  of  the  character  of  the  Infinite,  I  con- 
clude that  I  am  permitted  to  hope  that  I  am  made 
to  live  with  him  in  eternity.  What  is  a  cobweb  in 
the  path  of  a  planet  hurled  onward  by  the  power 
of  the  universe?  What  is  physical  death  in  the 
pathway  of  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  life?  If  he  wills 
that  I  live  after  death,  live  I  shall. 

In  summary  of  the  grounds  of  faith  in  the 
Fatherhood  of  God,  let  it  be  said,  that  he  has 
given  to  men  the  dower  of  love,  and  we  think 
that  we  cannot  be  wrong  in  believing  that  the 
Infinite  is  better  than  our  best.  We  take  the 
heart  of  the  world  at  its  best  in  the  family  life  of 
mankind,  and  looking  into  it,  what  honor,  what 
devotion,  what  self-sacrifice,  what  capacities  for 
heroism  we  find  here!  And  again  we  think  we 
cannot  be  wrong  in  our  belief  that  the  Being  who 
sent  this  bright  eflluence  into  the  heart  of  the 
world  is  better  than  the  heart  of  the  world  at  its 
best. 

Once  more,  Jesus  lived  out  of  his  sense  of  his 
Father;  his  mind,  with  all  its  splendor,  came  out 
of  that  consciousness.  His  character  was  created 
out  of  the  sense  of  his  Father;  his  ministry  of 
mercy  and  pure  humanity  came  out  of  that  same 
consciousness.  Jesus  is  the  product  of  his  sense 
of  the  Infinite  as  his  Father;  we  think  we  can- 
not be  wrong  in  believing  that  God  is  as  good 


106      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

as  his  best  gift,  that  God  is  as  good  as  Jesus 
Christ. 

In  1869,  several  years  after  his  great  bereave- 
ment, Thomas  Carlyle  wrote  the  following  letter 
to  his  friend,  Thomas  Erskine,  of  Linlathen. 

"Dear  Mr.  Erskine:  I  was  most  agreeably 
surprised  by  the  sight  of  your  handwriting  again, 
so  kind,  so  welcome !  The  letters  are  as  firm  and 
honestly  distinct  as  ever;  —  the  mind,  too,  in 
spite  of  its  frail  environments,  as  clear,  plumb-up, 
calmly  expectant  as  in  the  best  days:  right  so;  so 
be  it  with  us  all,  till  we  quit  this  dim  sojourn,  now 
grown  so  lonely  to  us,  and  our  change  come! 
*Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be 
thy  name,  thy  will  be  done ' ;  —  what  else  can  we 
say?  The  other  night,  in  my  sleepless  tossings 
about,  which  were  growing  more  and  more  mis- 
erable, these  words,  that  brief  and  grand  Prayer, 
came  strangely  into  my  mind,  with  an  altogether 
new  emphasis;  as  if  written,  and  shining  for  me 
in  mild,  pure  splendor,  on  the  black  bosom  of  the 
Night  there;  when  I,  as  it  were,  read  them  word 
by  word,  —  with  a  sudden  check  to  my  imperfect 
wanderings,  with  a  sudden  softness  of  composure, 
which  was  much  unexpected.  Not  for  perhaps 
thirty  or  forty  years  had  I  once  formally  repeated 
that  prayer; —  nay,  I  never  felt  before  how  in- 
tensely the  voice  of  man's  soul  it  is;  the  inmost 


FATHERHOOD  IN  GOD  107 

aspiration  of  all  that  is  high  and  pious  in  poor 
human  nature;  right  worthy  to  be  recommended 
with  an  *  After  this  manner  pray  ye.'  " 

The  doctrine  of  Fatherhood  in  God  is  a  doctrine 
of  faith;  it  is  not  a  demonstrated  truth.  It  is  a 
belief  about  the  interior  mystery  of  the  Infinite 
supported  by  much,  and  opposed  by  much,  in  the 
experience  of  mankind.  It  is  a  belief  about  the 
universe,  in  behalf  of  our  human  world,  supported 
by  all  that  is  best  in  that  world;  it  is  fitted  to 
elevate,  energize,  gladden  and  console  human 
beings;  it  is  the  belief  that  generates  and  justifies 
all  other  high  beliefs.  If  God  is  the  Absolute 
goodness  and  compassion,  our  human  world  is 
his  concern,  all  righteousness  has  his  approval, 
all  efforts  at  righteousness  are  followed  by  .his 
sympathy,  all  sin  must  reckon  with  his  endless 
enmity,  all  penitence  may  count  upon  his  pity, 
all  strivings  at  reform  may  be  sure  of  his  inspira- 
tion, all  union  in  the  endeavor  to  cleanse  the 
earth  of  moral  evil  may  move  in  the  tides  of  his 
Spirit,  all  grief  may  find  consolation  in  his  infi- 
nite love,  all  loss  may  hope  to  become,  in  the 
courses  of  the  ages,  eternal  gain  in  him.  If  Father- 
hood in  God  is  the  ultimate  reality  in  the  Infi- 
nite, as  the  Infinite  is  related  to  our  human  world, 
that  world  is  glorious  with  meaning  and  with 
hope. 


108     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

This  is  our  faith;  we  cannot  prove  it  true  be- 
yond doubt  or  question.  We  see  clearly  the  op- 
posing forces  in  the  world-experience  of  men; 
we  see,  too,  that  these  opposing  forces  lifted  to 
supremacy  over  thought,  would  wreck  society; 
we  further  see,  that  these  intractable  forces, 
these  experiences  that  protest  against  Father- 
hood in  God,  are  amenable  to  the  great  gener- 
alization, found  in  nearly  the  same  words,  in 
Plato  and  in  Paul:  *'A11  things  work  together 
for  good  to  those  who  are  dear  to  God"  —  the 
Platonic  form;  "All  things  work  together  for 
good  to  them  that  love  God"  —  the  Pauline 
form  of  the  moral  axiom. ^ 

In  the  field  of  experience,  therefore.  Father- 
hood in  God  would  seem  to  have  the  merit  of 
the  best  working  hypothesis,  and  this  is  enough 
to  secure  its  intellectual  standing. 

The  deeper  the  working  the  deeper  the  assur- 
ance; that  would  seem  to  be  the  true  account  of 
the  matter.  A  theory  of  swimming  can  never  be 
satisfactory,  even  when  it  is  clearly  the  best 
among  theories,  till  one  takes  it  into  the  water. 
There  it  is  either  refuted  or  confirmed;  there  expe- 
rience, when  it  does  confirm  it,  gives  it  an  axiom- 
atic character.  It  is  so  with  faith.  The  theory 
of  Fatherhood  in  God  must  be  taken  into  the 
deep  waters;  it  must  be  tested  when  all  God's 
»  Republic,  613;  Romans  8:  28. 


FATHERHOOD  IN  GOD  109 

waves  and  billows  are  gone  over  us;  it  must  be 
subjected  to  the  profoundest  and  bitterest  expe- 
riences,—  as  with  Jesus,  to  rejection,  contempt, 
outrage,  crucifixion;  and  when  it  is  proved  ade- 
quate there,  it  issues  as  the  fundamental  truth 
of  the  world,  —  again  as  in  Jesus  at  the  end, 
"Father  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit.'* 
The  Lord's  Prayer  comes  authenticated  out  of 
the  highest  experience  of  the  ages;  it  is  besides, 
the  best  that  man  can  say  about  the  Infinite,  the 
best  he  can  say  to  the  Infinite  concerning  the 
world  of  men.  It  is  the  deepest  voice  in  history; 
the  burden  of  humanity  is  in  it;  all  that  is  highest 
in  us  cries  aloud  in  its  great  words.  It  stands  for 
the  race  of  man,  conscious  of  the  depth  of  its 
humanity,  calling  upon  the  Eternal  humanity, 
to  cover  it  with  his  good  will  and  peace. 

Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven. 
Hallowed  be  thy  name; 
Thy  Kingdom  come, 
Thy  will  be  done  in  earth 

as  it  is  in  heaven. 
Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread. 
And  forgive  us  our  debts. 
As  we  forgive  our  debtors. 
And  lead  us  not  into  temptation. 
But  deliver  us  from  evil; 
For  thine  is  the  Kingdom, 
And  the  power,  and  the  glory,  forever. 

Amen. 


CHAPTER  V 

MAN  THE  HOST  OF  THE  INFINITE 
I 
In  philosophy,  but  nowhere  else,  one  meets  a 
mysterious  kind  of  being  called  a  solipsist.  This 
person  who  gets  his  name  from  the  combination 
of  two  Latin  words,  solus,  alone,  ipse,  self,  holds 
that  the  human  mind  can  know  nothing  beyond 
its  own  states;  he  denies,  therefore,  that  man  has 
or  can  have  a  knowledge  of  minds  other  than  his 
own.  Such  depth  and  height,  length  and  breadth 
of  metaphysical  scepticism  I  have  never  met  in  a 
living  human  being,  not  even  in  an  asylum  for  the 
insane.  Solipsism  is  the  philosophy  of  the  abso- 
lute human  egoist;  it  is  the  philosophy  that  abol- 
ishes, as  far  as  knowledge  goes,  universal  reality, 
and  that  fills  the  void  thus  created  with  the  "I 
am"  of  the  ineffable  egoist  who  is  all  in  all. 

I  have,  however,  met  many  times  the  sort  of 
person  who  believes  that  he  alone  is  worthy,  that 
while  other  minds  exist  they  do  not  count.  Even 
so  great  a  man  as  the  prophet  Elijah  appears  to 
have  fallen  into  this  mood.  He  cries  out  to  his 
God:  "The  children  of  Israel  have  forsaken  thy 
covenant,  they  have  thrown  down  thy  altars  and 
slain  thy  prophets, and  I, even  I  only  am  left."* 
U  Kings  19: 10. 


MAN   THE  HOST  OF  THE  INFINITE     111 

Symbolic  of  this  state  of  mind  is  the  famihar 
Scottish  story:  "Is  it  true,  John,  that  you  think 
that  you  and  your  brother  Sandy  are  the  only 
real  believers  in  all  Scotland?"  "Aye,  and  I  be- 
gin to  hae  my  doots  aboot  Sandy."  That  sort  of 
doubt  is  widely  prevalent  among  earnest  persons, 
still  in  the  inhospitable  stage  of  development; 
other  minds  do  indeed  exist  but  they  do  not 
count. 

A  wonder  of  this  sort  is  suggestive  to  an  awak- 
ened intellect.  Think  what  we  should  be  if  we 
altogether  ceased  to  entertain  minds  other  than 
our  own.  What  would  a  human  home  be,  un vis- 
ited by  any  part  of  "the  beauty  and  the  chiv- 
alry" of  its  own  generation?  Who  would  wish 
to  live  in  a  home  so  detached  and  desolate? 
What  would  the  individual  mind  be,  unvisited  by 
any  of  the  higher  minds  of  its  own  time,  unvis- 
ited by  any  of  the  greater  minds  of  the  past? 
Could  there  be  any  acuter  misery  than  this  soli- 
tary self-imprisonment,  than  thus  to  be  an  out- 
cast from  the  supreme  intellectual  fellowship  of 
mankind?  Milton's  words  of  sorrow  over  his 
sightless  eyes,  seeking  yet  failing  to  find  the  light, 
would  express  a  profounder  grief  and  gloom: 

"But  thou 
Revist'st  not  these  eyes,  that  roll  in  vain 
To  find  thy  piercing  ray,  and  find  no  dawn." 

These  reflections  would  seem  to  justify  the 


112      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEBY 

conclusion  that  hospitality,  discriminating  and 
yet  generous,  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  intel- 
lectual virtues.  It  is  a  virtue  that  meets  with 
many  disappointments.  Apollo  now  and  then 
turns  out  to  be  no  Apollo  at  all,  but  a  humbug 
in  the  disguise  of  the  god  of  light  and  sunbeams. 
He  eats  our  bread,  consumes  our  time,  refuses  our 
benediction  and  leaves  behind  the  strong  scent 
of  the  polecat.  On  the  other  hand  hospitality  has 
its  divine  surprises.  The  first  Hebrew  sat  at  the 
door  of  his  tent  in  the  cool  of  the  day,  and  two 
young  men  came  to  him  to  whom  he  gave  high 
welcome.  These  young  men  proved  to  be  mes- 
sengers of  the  Highest.  "  Forget  not  to  show  love 
unto  strangers:  for  thereby  some  have  enter- 
tained angels  unawares." 

The  double  character  of  our  capacity  to  enter- 
tain minds  other  than  our  own  has  been  hinted 
at;  the  range  of  both  capacities  runs  through  the 
universe.  We  are  sadly  familiar  with  the  issue 
when  the  young  man  or  woman  entertains  the 
wrong  guest.  Here  is  the  system  of  education 
that  recruits  hospitals,  reformatories,  jails,  all 
the  black  battalions  of  crime.  Here  is  the  deep- 
est cause  of  the  inexpressibly  sorrowful  waste  of 
noble  endowment  and  prophetic  human  life. 
The  wrong  guest  has  been  invited  and  welcomed. 
When  the  mistake  is  of  tragic  magnitude,  it  ap- 
pears thus: 


MAN  THE  HOST  OF  THE  INFINITE     113 

"Come,  you  spirits 
That  tend  on  mortal  thoughts,  unsex  me  here. 
And  fill  me  from  the  crown  to  the  toe  top-full 
Of  direst  cruelty!  Make  thick  my  blood; 
Stop  up  the  access  and  passage  to  remorse. 
That  no  compunctious  visitings  of  nature 
Shake  my  fell  purpose.   Come,  thick  night. 
And  pall  thee  in  the  dunnest  smoke  of  hell, 
That  my  keen  knife  see  not  the  wound  it  makes 
Nor  heaven  peep  through  the  blanket  of  the  dark 
To  cry,  Hold,  hold." 

This  is  hospitality  toward  the  immeasurable 
evil  about  and  beyond  us;  this  is  the  terrible  call 
of  the  trumpet  of  blackness  assembling  to  the  aid 
of  the  depraved  soul,  the  available  wicked  minds 
of  the  world.  It  suggests  by  the  law  of  contrast 
the  appeal  to  the  good  spirits,  the  cry  for  fellow- 
ship, on  a  grand  scale,  with  the  high  minds  of  the 
race,  the  invocation  sent  through  eternity  calling 
for  the  help  and  presence  of  the  Infinite  Mind: 

**So  much  the  rather  thou,  Celestial  light. 
Shine  inward,  and  the  mind  through  all  her  powers 
Irradiate,  there  plant  eyes,  all  mist  from  thence 
Purge  and  disperse,  that  I  may  see  and  tell 
Of  things  invisible  to  mortal  sight." 

II 

The  apparently  fantastic  question  returns 
upon  us.  How  can  one  know  minds  other  than 
one's  own?  Till  that  question  is  clearly  answered, 
it  would  seem  to  be  premature  to  think  of  enter- 
taining them,  especially  of  lifting  our  hospitality 


114     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

toward  the  Infinite  Mind.  Is  man  as  an  intellec- 
tual being  purely  an  individualist,  and  one  with- 
out a  universe,  with  no  contact  with  the  Eternal; 
or  is  he  by  nature  social,  a  member  of  a  kind,  and 
does  he  live  in  "  the  being  of  the  Eternal  silence?  " 
Here  are  two  notable  women,  historic  or  of  the 
imagination,  both  beautiful,  both  supremely 
noble,  Ruth  and  Naomi.  The  story  of  their  love 
is  among  the  precious  possessions  of  mankind. 
How  did  these  two  friends  come  each  to  know 
the  other .^  In  the  first  place  by  pure  assumption. 
Certain  signs  form  the  expression  of  the  individ- 
ual mind,  the  fire  in  the  eye,  the  light  on  the 
brow,  the  glow  on  the  cheek,  the  motion  of  the 
hands,  the  articulate  sounds  of  the  voice,  the 
movement  of  the  entire  body.  These  signs  one 
knows  as  the  forms  of  the  expression  of  one's 
mind  when  intellect  is  awakened  and  feeling 
stirred.  When,  therefore,  one  sees  similar  signs 
coming  from  a  foreign  centre  of  life,  one  infers 
that  as  in  one's  own  case,  so  here,  there  is  interior 
mind  as  the  source  of  the  expression.  Interpre- 
tation of  signs,  guided  by  personal  experience; 
that  is  the  first  step  into  knowledge  of  our  friend. 
The  assumption  is  made  that  the  friend  is  real. 
In  the  second  place  each  friend  lets  out  toward 
the  other  a  tide  of  feeling.  The  sea  comes  flood- 
ing in  till  you  find  it  many  miles  back  in  the 
country;  the  great  river  rolls  out  into  the  sea  and 


MAN  THE  HOST  OF  THE  INFINITE     115 

you  discover  traces  of  its  sweet  waters  far  out  in 
the  deep;  thus  souls  seek  and  search  each  other 
by  their  tidal  sympathies,  and  become  pro- 
foundly aware  each  of  the  being  of  the  other. 
Finally  a  common  ideal  is  beheld,  a  common 
task  is  acknowledged.  Together  these  friends 
pursue  and  serve  the  ideal,  together  they  work 
at  the  task;  they  bring  to  pass  by  their  joint 
vision,  sympathy  and  toil,  some  beautiful  and 
vital  result.  In  this  way  they  become  clear  and 
indubitable  realities  to  each  other.  Through  in- 
stinctive interpretation  of  the  sign-language  of 
the  personal  mind,  found  coming  to  one  from  an 
alien  centre,  through  the  flow  and  counter-flow 
of  sympathy  and  through  co-operative  creative 
wills,  Ruth  and  Naomi  rise  into  a  fellowship  of 
souls  whose  reality  no  sane  mind  can  question. 
From  the  one  personal  centre  to  the  other  comes 
the  cry  of  endless  affinity,  a  cry  surely  among  the 
most  exquisitely  beautiful  in  all  history:  "En- 
treat me  not  to  leave  thee,  and  to  return  from 
following  after  thee;  for  whither  thou  goest,  I 
will  go;  and  where  thou  lodgest,  I  will  lodge;  thy 
people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God  my 
God;  where  thou  diest,  will  I  die,  and  there  will  I 
be  buried :  the  Lord  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also, 
if  aught  but  death  part  thee  and  me." 

In  this  way  men  find  the  living  God.   When 
the  heritage  of  faith  has  lost  its  power,  when  the 


116      ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

habit  of  belief  has  sunk  to  a  soulless  mechanism, 
when  Eternity  has  become  void  and  the  spirit 
in  man,  in  universal  bereavement,  is  moved  to 
examine  anew  life  and  life's  infinite  environment, 
where  the  re-examination  does  not  end  in  vanity, 
the  issue  is  something  full  of  wonder.  Here  is 
sign-language,  in  the  earth  and  in  the  depth  of 
space;  here  is  an  ordered  cosmos  "where  day  unto 
day  uttereth  speech  and  night  unto  night  show- 
eth  forth  knowledge."  Here  is  a  world  in  cove- 
nant with  man,  seed  time  and  harvest  in  impres- 
sive recurrence;  air  for  his  lungs,  earth  for  his 
home  and  servant,  the  friendly  skies  for  his  ally 
with  sternness  enough  to  prevent  sloth  and  to 
keep  him  in  motion  toward  higher  power.  Here, 
too,  in  hill  and  valley,  mountain,  sea  and  stream, 
in  flower  and  star  and  bird  is  beauty  for  his  heart. 
In  the  history  of  his  kind  there  emerges  that 
which  is  best  known  as  moral  law,  in  the  sphere 
of  mind  the  grand  analogue  of  gravitation  in  the 
physical  order.  Purpose,  ascension,  seem  to  be 
clear  over  wide  tracts  of  time,  and  while  origins 
and  goals  are  lost  in  the  cloud,  the  intermediate 
movement  is  a  tragic  sign-language  of  utmost 
moment.  Vast,  impressive,  benign  and  yet  terri- 
ble, as  a  whole,  boundless  and  inscrutable,  is  this 
aggressive  appeal.  Is  there  any  way  of  getting 
behind  it,  of  grasping  its  meaning?  What  if  it  is 
the  infinite  counterpart  of  that  sign-language 


MAN  THE  HOST  OF  THE  INFINITE     117 

used  by  the  speaking  mind  of  the  individual 
man?  What  if  we  are  here  in  contact  with  Cos- 
mic mind,  Historic  mind,  Absolute  mind?  Assume 
this  to  be  so  and  begin  the  search.  Here  emo- 
tion, sensitive,  penetrative,  far-reaching,  comes 
into  play.  The  Deity  behind  the  boundless  sign- 
language  comes  through  it  to  meet  the  seeking 
heart  of  man.  Sympathies  merge.  Divine  com- 
passions and  human  thanksgivings  blend,  like 
two  streams,  the  White  Nile  and  the  Blue  Nile, 
the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  and  make  one 
river,  the  river  that  makes  glad  the  city  of  God. 
The  co-operation  of  creative  wills  follows,  as 
when  all  planets  and  stars  join  the  great  sun  in 
the  illumination  of  this  earth.  The  Kingdom  of 
God,  the  reign  of  God  as  love  in  the  hearts  of 
men,  by  their  joyous  consent  and  co-operating 
might;  —  there  is  the  region  where  the  Eternal 
mind  is  known  as  the  life,  strength,  companion 
and  consolation  of  the  world.  In  Judah  God  is 
known;  words  symbolic  of  the  vital  movement 
here  described,  beginning  in  the  assumption  that 
behind  the  immeasurable  sign-language  in  nature 
and  in  humanity  there  is  Eternal  mind,  going 
forth  in  sympathy  toward  a  great  discovery  and 
ending  in  the  assurance  of  the  fellowship  of  crea- 
tive souls. 


118     ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 


III 
Our  next  question  concerns  human  hospitality 
toward  the  Infinite  Mind.  How  do  men  become 
the  host  of  the  Highest?  In  two  ways,  the  first 
of  which  is  inevitable.  Here  is  a  child,  fortu- 
nately born,  let  us  say.  Its  mother's  being  lives 
in  it  inevitably.  In  Carlyle  through  his  entire  ca- 
reer and  in  the  delirium  of  death  his  brilliant  and 
pious  mother  lived;  she  was  in  the  constitution  of 
his  being,  ever-present  and  potent.  So  with 
another  great  man.  Monica  held  her  place  in  her 
son  Augustine's  life  till  all  that  was  inconsistent 
with  her  character  was  driven  from  that  passion- 
ate soul.  Here  the  son  entertained  the  parent 
inevitably.  Thus  God  the  creator  lives  in  the 
laws  of  logic  by  which  we  become  sure  of  truth, 
in  the  intuitions  of  the  mind  by  which  we  know 
reality,  in  the  movement  of  moral  reason  upon 
the  good  and  in  its  sense  of  the  relation  of  right 
to  the  good;  in  the  movement  by  which  man  dis- 
covers his  goal  and  the  way  thither;  in  the  social 
constitution  of  human  nature  by  which  men 
gather  into  families,  communities,  nations,  races, 
one  distinct  kind.  One  classic  expression  of  this 
inevitable  indwelling  of  God  in  the  being  of  man 
is  in  these  familiar  words: 

"Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  spirit.'* 
Or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence? 


MAN  THE  HOST  OF  THE  INFINITE     119 

If  I  ascend  up  into  heaven,  thou  art  there: 

If  I  make  my  bed  in  hell,  behold,  thou  art  there. 

If  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morning 

And  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea. 

Even  there  shall  thy  hand  lead  me. 

If  I  say.  Surely  the  darkness  shall  overwhelm  me. 

And  the  light  about  me  shall  be  night; 

Even  the  darkness  hideth  not  from  thee. 

But  the  night  shineth  as  the  day : 

The  darkness  and  the  light  are  both  alike  to  thee."  ^ 

So  a  nameless  soul,  lofty  and  profound,  discovered 
five  and  twenty  hundred  years  ago,  and  perhaps 
more,  the  unescapable  presence  of  the  Deity  that 
dwells  in  the  constitution  of  man  as  an  intelligent 
and  moral  being. 

The  second  form  of  hospitality  toward  God  is 
through  personal  invocation  and  welcome.  Again 
let  me  use  the  human  analogy.  When  I  came  to 
the  Old  South  Church  in  Boston  in  1884,  a  young 
man  of  thirty-one,  finding  the  religious  commu- 
nity in  theological  panic  on  my  poor  innocent 
account,  finding  it  unable  to  give  me  credit  for  a 
single  good  quality  as  a  religious  teacher,  and 
unwilling  to  cash  a  cheque  in  the  bank  of  char- 
acter for  ten  cents,  knowing  not  where  to  go  for 
a  wise  and  strong  friend,  I  turned  to  the  spirit  of 
my  Scottish  father,  a  farmer  who  had  then  been 
three  years  in  his  grave.  His  mind  became  my 
honored  guest;  he  told  me  how  to  define  my 
1  Ps.  139:7-12. 


120      ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

task,  how  to  attack  it  and  how  to  play  a  man's 
part  in  a  gravely  responsible  position.  The  clear- 
ness of  his  mind,  the  counsels  of  his  experience, 
the  energy  of  his  character  and  the  unsurpassable 
courage  of  his  heart  did  more  to  help  me  than  all 
the  living  put  together.  Here  the  mind  of  a  wise 
and  invincible  father  came  to  his  son  as  an  in- 
vited and  welcome  guest;  that  mind  came  to 
enlighten  and  reinforce  life. 

I  believe  this  experience  represents  a  family 
tradition.  Carlyle  writes:  "I  can  see  my  dear 
father's  life  in  some  measure  as  the  sunk  pillar 
on  which  mine  was  to  rise  and  be  built.  ...  I 
might  almost  say  his  spirit  seems  to  have  entered 
me,  so  closely  do  I  discern  and  love  him :  I  seem  to 
myself  only  the  continuation  and  second  volume 
of  my  father."  ^  The  sun  looks  down  every  day 
and  the  stars  every  night  upon  like  experiences 
working  mightily  in  human  hearts.  The  mind  of 
the  wise  parent  returns  a  strangely  vivid,  a  pro- 
foundly welcome  guest;  it  lights  up  the  nature  of 
essential  good,  and  tears  the  mask  from  the  face 
of  essential  evil,  girds  for  duty,  consoles  in  sor- 
row and  covers  the  head  in  the  day  of  battle. 

Plainly  we  touch  here  the  great  question  of 

education.  The  solipsist,  unless  he  is  the  infinite, 

is  doomed  to  eternal  sterility.   Education  means 

discriminating  intellectual  hospitality;  it  means 

^  Reminiscences,  Norton's  Edition,  p.  32. 


MAN  THE  HOST  OF  THE  INFINITE     121 

that  the  inferior  mind  becomes  host  to  the  su- 
perior. Whenever  a  great  mind  becomes  one's 
guest,  and  one  entertains  its  conception,  ideal, 
method,  achievement,  energy,  along  one  line,  one 
begins  to  rise  to  the  dignity  of  an  educated  intel- 
lect. Broaden  the  scope  of  this  hospitality,  wel- 
come a  goodly  company  of  the  representative 
minds  of  the  world,  and  one  is  in  time  bound  to 
be  a  richly  educated  person.  This  is  what  Jesus 
did  for  his  disciples.  He  found  them  fishermen, 
he  took  them  into  his  companionship,  into  the 
inner  circle.  They  went  about  with  him  and  his 
endeavor  was  to  get  as  much  of  his  mind  into 
them  as  he  could  upon  all  the  great  moral  and 
spiritual  interests  of  life.  With  what  result?  He 
found  them  fishermen,  he  left  them  apostles, 
permanent  religious  teachers  of  the  world.  We 
speak  of  them  as  illiterate  men;  we  are  mistaken. 
These  men  had  for  their  teacher  the  Supreme 
Teacher,  they  had  him,  let  us  say,  for  nearly  three 
years.  Did  any  class  of  students  ever  have  such 
a  Master?  They  became  finally  the  host  to  the 
mind  of  Jesus;  that  was  the  ultimate  secret  of 
their  education. 

You  venture  to  invite  and  welcome  as  your 
guest  the  mind  of  Jesus.  You  do  it  precisely  as 
you  would  invite  and  welcome  any  other  great 
mind  in  history.  The  process  is  the  same  whether 
it  be  Plato  or  Socrates  or  Jesus.   It  is  the  same 


122     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

whether  the  guest  is  the  mind  of  the  Hving  or  the 
dead.  The  reaUty  of  the  mind  is  reached  through 
the  grand  hieroglyph  in  each  ease;  in  the  case  of 
the  dead,  by  the  hieroglyph  of  written  language, 
persistent  tradition,  continuous  influence,  a  rep- 
resentative cause  potent  and  engaging  in  the 
world  of  today;  in  the  case  of  the  living  who  are 
beyond  our  fellowship,  by  the  very  same  signs  as 
in  that  of  the  dead;  in  the  instance  of  our  closest 
friends,  by  interpretation  of  the  expressions  of 
their  power.  All  other  minds,  living  or  dead,  near 
or  far,  are  hidden  behind  hieroglyphs;  by  reading, 
brooding,  deciphering,  daring,  we  attain  to  the 
vision  of  mind  living  and  dead.  When  one  thus 
deciphers  the  hieroglyph  behind  which  the  mind 
of  Jesus  stands,  one  is  free  to  welcome  and  to 
entertain  and  to  be  transformed  by  that  mind. 
True  hospitality  extends  from  the  finite  to  the 
Infinite,  it  rises  from  man  to  God.  Here,  too, 
the  process  is  the  same.  The  universe,  cosmic  and 
human,  is  a  hieroglyph;  and  the  question  is,  Can 
we  decipher  its  meaning?  Is  it  essentially  like 
our  human  hieroglyphs?  May  we  not  find  the 
method  by  which  its  significance  is  construed? 
Is  it  not  the  messenger  of  mind?  If  we  can  so 
decide,  if  our  interpretation  eventuates  in  mutual 
sympathy  and  co-operative  living,  the  image  of 
the  Eternal  mind  such  as  we  are  fitted  to  receive, 
may  be  invited  and  welcomed  as  our  guest. 


MAN  THE  HOST  OF  THE  INFINITE     123 

Dante  is  here  an  illustrious  example  of  this  law 
of  the  hospitable  mind.  His  education  was  in 
communion  with  the  best  intellects  of  his  gener- 
ation; through  this  communion  he  passed  to  fel- 
lowship with  the  highest  minds  in  Roman  and 
Greek  literature.  He  constructed  his  Paradiso 
on  this  principle  of  hospitality;  its  various  circles 
are  peopled  with  appropriate  companies  of  ex- 
traordinary minds.  The  poet's  education  is  in 
traversing  these  circles,  in  meeting  these  com- 
panies of  elect  spirits.  At  length  he  comes  to  the 
great  apostle,  to  the  mind  of  the  Redeemer,  to 
the  Beatific  Vision,  to  the  Mind  of  God.  Time 
and  space  are  cancelled;  the  distinction  of  living 
and  dead  is  done  away.  The  vast  adventurer, 
the  great  soul  whose  hospitality  was  open  to  wise 
minds  everywhere,  and  to  the  Infinite  Mind, 
looked  only  for  the  significant  hieroglyph.  His 
question  was,  Is  there  any  sign  of  minds  other 
than  my  own,  whether  named  living  or  dead,  hu- 
man or  divine,  finite  or  Infinite  ?  Read  the  sign, 
brood  upon  its  meaning,  be  swift  to  recognize  the 
hidden  spirit,  be  instant  in  reverent  welcome 
whether  it  be  the  spirit  of  man  or  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  God. 

The  conclusion  would  seem  to  be  that  God  is 
our  guest  exactly  as  our  parents  are;  first,  by  the 
constitution  of  our  being,  he  is  inevitably  our 
guest;  second,  by  the  consent  of  our  will,  again 


124     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

precisely  as  other  minds  are,  whether  of  kindred, 
contemporaries  near  or  remote  from  our  abode, 
whether  Uving  or  dead.  Indeed  there  is  here  no 
question  of  space  or  time,  Hfe  or  death.  The  hier- 
oglyph is  here  and  if  we  can  attain  contact  with 
the  mind  hidden  in  it,  all  is  light,  influence,  ex- 
pansive power,  life. 

IV 

This  is  called  mysticism,  and  in  one  sense 
rightly.  We  must  not  forget,  however,  that  there 
are  two  kinds  of  mysticism,  a  false  kind  and  a 
true.  False  mysticism  is  fog  within  looking  upon 
fog  without  and  trying  mightily  but  unsuccess- 
fully to  believe  that  the  fog  without  is  reality. 
One  will  often  hear  that  cloudland  of  utter  in- 
definiteness  and  immeasurable  unreality  called 
mysticism.  That  kind  of  mysticism  is  to  be  dis- 
regarded. 

The  other  kind  of  mysticism  is  part  of  the  su- 
preme experience  of  the  world.  It  means  sure 
conscious  contact  with  reality;  it  means  the 
ultimate  intuition  of  the  intellect  as  it  turns  upon 
itself,  the  cosmos  and  God;  it  signifies  the  pri- 
mordial mental  report  that  becomes  the  basis  of 
all  reflection,  all  reasoning,  all  organization  of 
ideas  into  system.  Upon  analysis  of  our  intel- 
lectual powers  we  discover  that  the  final  power  is 
the  sense  of  reality,  the  eye  that  knows  itself  and 


MAN   THE  HOST  OF  THE  INFINITE     125 

that  transcends  itself,  that  claims  sure  conscious 
contact  with  reality.  This  is  the  fountain  of  our 
intellectual  life;  this  is  the  spring  whose  ceaseless 
flow  provides  a  vast  body  of  material  for  use,  a 
pond,  a  lake.  The  primitive  and  universal  form 
of  genius  is  the  genius  for  reality,  cosmic,  hu- 
man, spiritual.  Nothing  is  philosophically  pro- 
founder  in  Aristotle,  the  great  master  in  logic, 
than  his  constant  claim  that  we  cannot  demand 
reasons  for  everything.  When  one  asserts  that 
the  same  thing  cannot  be  and  not  be,  in  the  same 
sense  and  at  the  same  time,  and  another  denies  the 
truth  of  this  axiom  of  contradiction,  what  hap- 
pens? Suspension  of  intercourse  between  these 
persons.  Here  is  a  final  law  of  the  mind;  if  it  is 
not  seen  or  not  acknowledged  that  ends  the  dis- 
cussion. If  a  man  is  blind  one  cannot  give  him 
the  sensation  of  color;  if  he  is  deaf  he  cannot  be 
made  to  appreciate  music.  An  operation  upon 
the  eyes  and  ears  of  this  person  is  the  primary 
demand.  This  is  what  Aristotle  virtually  comes 
to  in  the  case  of  those  who  deny  the  truth  of  the 
axiom  of  contradiction.  Let  such  a  person  use 
significant  speech,  let  him  aflSrm  that  his  father 
and  mother  are  visiting  him  or  that  he  is  hungry. 
Then  one  can  refute  his  previous  denial  by  con- 
fronting him  w  ith  the  nonsense  that  it  makes  of 
his  recent  aflSrmations.  His  father  and  mother 
have  or  have  not,  in  the  same  sense  and  at  the 


126      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

same  time  visited  him,  and  he  is  or  is  not 
hungry.  The  simple  truth  is  that  the  ultimate 
rational  endowment  of  man  is  a  sure  instinct  or 
intuition  or  genius  for  reality.  A  story  to  the 
point  is  told  of  the  bewildered  tailor  who  claimed 
that  he  made  the  trousers  in  litigation.  Daniel 
Webster,  so  the  story  goes,  said  to  the  witness 
that  a  reasonable  man  should  be  able  to  give  a 
reason  for  his  beliefs.  Mr.  Tailor,  you  say  you 
made  these  trousers?  I  do.  Do  you  take  longer 
stitches  than  other  tailors?  No.  Do  you  take 
shorter  stitches  than  other  tailors?  No.  You 
take  stitches  equal  in  length  to  those  of  other 
tailors?  I  do.  Then  tell  me  how  you  know  that 
these  are  your  stitches?  Good  heavens!  Don't 
I  know  my  own  stitches!  The  reply  was  final. 
The  cat  knows  its  own  kittens  but  cannot  tell 
why;  the  human  mind  knows  reality  whether  it 
can  or  cannot  give  an  account  of  its  knowledge. 
Vagueness  is  present  in  all  the  beginnings  of 
knowledge;  the  process  is  like  the  sailor  ap- 
proaching land.  For  a  long  time  there  is  cer- 
tainty that  no  land  is  seen;  then  follows  a  period 
of  uncertainty:  the  appearance  on  the  horizon 
may  be  land  or  it  may  be  cloud.  Eventually 
assurance  comes,  the  land  is  descried,  yet  in  a 
form  extremely  vague.  It  is  there  without  doubt 
but  it  is  indistinct;  at  length  all  vagueness  is  gone 
and  the  firm-set  island  or  continent  looms  in 


MAN  THE  HOST  OF  THE  INFINITE     127 

perfect  clearness.  It  is  much  the  same  with  all 
knowledge  at  the  first.  We  know  when  the  real- 
ity is  out  of  contact  with  the  mind;  there  is  a  time 
when  we  are  not  sure;  finally,  we  are  sure,  and 
yet  we  are  vague  about  it,  and  unable  to  give, 
what  Socrates  was  always  demanding,  a  rational 
account  of  our  contact  with  reality.  That  is  the 
task  of  the  intellect  surely,  and  no  mind  should 
rest  content  without  a  serious  endeavor  to  lift 
what  is  vaguely  known  into  rational  order  and 
clearness.  Still  the  initial  vague  contact  with 
reality  holds  in  potency  the  entire  subsequent 
issue  as  the  adult  body  is  potentially  in  the  orig- 
inal living  matter  from  which  it  is  developed. 
The  farmer  who  drove  four  miles  to  hear  Dr. 
Fairbairn  preach  a  series  of  Discourses  on  the 
deeper  things  of  the  Christian  Faith,  was  philo- 
sophically justified  by  his  reply  to  those  who 
made  fun  of  him  for  his  zeal,  and  who  declared 
that  he  could  not  understand  what  he  heard. 
"Maybe,  aye,  and  maybe,  mo;  but  man  it's  grand 
to  sit  in  the  front  o*  the  laft  [gallery]  and  catch 
the  sough  o't  gawn  past  yer  lug." 

When  we  come  to  the  Kingdom  of  the  spirit 
the  same  law  obtains.  As  reality  it  lies  about  us 
at  first  vaguely;  yet  it  is  there  and  potent.  The 
office  of  the  prophet  is  to  render  in  clearness  and 
strength  what  lies,  if  never  so  vaguely,  in  the 
consciousness  of  every  spiritual  man.  Here  men 


128     ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

are  divisible,  not  into  mystics  and  non-mystics, 
but  into  men  immature  and  men  mature  in  spirit- 
ual insight  and  understanding.  The  great  spirit 
comes,  and  the  reality  that  was  present  as  a 
mountain  in  cloud  now  stands  wholly  clear.  Here 
is  the  voice  of  an  immortal  prophet  of  the  king- 
dom of  truth:  *'Ye  are  not  come  unto  a  mount 
that  might  be  touched,  and  that  burned  with  fire, 
and  unto  blackness,  and  darkness,  and  tempest, 
and  the  sound  of  a  trumpet  and  the  voice  of 
words."  All  that  belongs  to  the  rude  grandeur 
and  wild  tumult  of  the  sensuous  sphere.  "Ye 
are  come  unto  Mount  Zion,  and  unto  the  city  of 
the  living  God,  and  unto  innumerable  hosts  of 
God's  messengers,  to  the  general  assembly  and 
church  of  the  first  born  who  are  enrolled  in 
heaven,  and  to  God  the  Judge  of  all,  and  to  the 
spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect,  and  to  Jesus  the 
Mediator  of  the  new  covenant."  Here  the  in- 
visible and  eternal  Kingdom  of  reality  is  given 
directly  to  the  minds  of  humble  human  beings; 
God,  Jesus,  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect 
and  the  whole  realm  of  the  spirit  are  presented 
as  in  clear  contact  with  their  hearts. 


The  greatest  thought  that  ever  entered  the 
mind  of  man  is  the  thought  of  the  God  and 
Father  of  Jesus,  the  Lord  God  of  our  fathers. 


MAN  THE  HOST  OF  THE  INFINITE     129 

the  Eternal  Mind  inhabiting  and  yet  transcend- 
ing the  universe,  the  Infinite  Good  Will  that  is 
the  ground  and  hope  of  humanity.  Among  our 
thoughts  there  is  none  comparable  to  this  in 
majesty,  tenderness,  and  power.  Where  this 
thought  has  been  seriously  and  habitually  enter- 
tained it  has  produced  the  most  exalted,  the  most 
beautiful  and  the  most  beneficent  type  of  hu- 
man being.  It  has  been  the  great  creative  force 
in  human  character  in  all  the  Christian  centuries; 
it  has  disinfected  the  mind  as  the  sunshine  disin- 
fects the  air  in  the  hovel  and  lane  in  the  unspeak- 
able Oriental  city;  it  has  kept  within  bounds 
social  plagues  that  otherwise  would  have  exter- 
minated our  race.  When  the  idea  of  God  enters 
the  mind  unclean  ideas  vanish,  like  Macbeth's 
witches,  into  thin  air. 

This  presence  that  means  psychic  disinfection, 
means  likewise  the  orderly  development  of  the 
entire  capacity  of  man.  Plato  is  true  to  the 
deepest  law  in  the  soul  when  he  teaches  that  only 
in  the  man  who  lives  in  the  vision  of  the  Absolute 
good  do  the  appetites  and  desires  fulfil  their  nor- 
mal function ;  the  force  of  spirit,  courage,  daring 
attain  its  end;  and  reason  becomes  nobly  wise 
and  potent  over  the  course  of  life;  he  is  pro- 
foundly true  to  social  law  when  he  contends  that 
only  when  our  rulers  live  in  that  same  vision  can 
they  discover  the  order  that  should  be  impressed 


130      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEET 

upon  the  society  of  man.  This  teaching  of  Plato 
is  in  full  accord  with  the  whole  endeavor  of 
Jesus.  That  endeavor  was  to  found  a  Kingdom 
in  which  the  sovereign  influence  should  be  the 
idea  of  the  Eternal  compassionate  God,  the  Infi- 
nite Father  of  Men.  He  believed  that  hospitality 
of  mind  toward  this  idea  would  change  the  char- 
acter of  the  individual  man  and  ultimately  the 
order  of  human  society.  So  far  this  hospitality 
has  been  wanting  on  any  large  and  worthy  scale; 
so  far  it  has  been  the  mood  only  of  elect  spirits. 
Even  so  the  result  has  been  impressive;  by  this 
path  have  come  the  man  of  God,  the  prophet,  the 
saint,  the  goodly  fellowship  of  those  who  have 
attained  a  mind  above  the  world,  who  have  felt 
that  here  they  were  strangers  and  pilgrims  as  all 
their  fathers  were,  that  here  they  had  no  contin- 
uing city,  and  who  sought  the  city  whose  builder 
and  maker  is  God. 

The  great  reforms,  the  truly  effective  systems 
of  education,  the  vital  salvations  have  always 
thus  arisen.   The  refrain  has  been: 

"Hear,  O  Israel;  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord; 
and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all 
thine  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all 
thy  might.  And  these  words  which  I  command 
thee  this  day,  shall  be  upon  thine  heart:  and  thou 
shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy  children, 
and  shalt  talk  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in  thine 


MAN  THE  HOST  OF  THE  INFINITE     131 

house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and 
when  thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou  risest  up. 
And  thou  shalt  bind  them  for  a  sign  upon  thine 
hand,  and  they  shall  be  for  frontlets  between 
thine  eyes.  And  thou  shalt  write  them  upon  the 
door  posts  of  thy  house,  and  upon  thy  gates."  ^ 
What  eloquence  we  have  here;  let  us  add,  what 
wisdom,  in  the  system  of  education  outlined. 
Where  shall  we  look  for  its  equal  outside  the 
teachings  of  Jesus?  Induce  the  human  mind 
early  and  habitually  to  entertain  the  thought  of 
the  All-Perfect;  in  this  way  there  shall  arise  a 
generation  of  children,  youth,  men  and  women 
such  as  the  world  has  never  yet  seen.  Men  are  by 
the  law  of  their  being  the  children  of  the  Infinite; 
when  they  awake  to  this  fact  and  welcome  the 
Ineffable  as  guest,  the  soul  of  man,  individual 
and  social,  shall  indeed  be  the  temple  of  God. 

The  immanence  of  the  Absolute  Spirit  in  his 
universe,  is  the  philosophical  doctrine  underlying 
the  discussion  in  this  chapter.  The  doctrine 
is  contained  in  the  great  ascription  of  Isaiah: 
"Holy,  Holy,  Holy  is  the  Lord  of  hosts;  the 
whole  earth  is  full  of  his  glory."  ^  Great  philos- 
ophy and  great  religion  are  seldom  at  variance. 
The  universal  presence  of  the  Divine  Mind  is  the 
warrant  for  the  intelligibility  of  all  worlds;  in 
particular,  it  is  the  assurance  of  the  rationality  of 
»  Deuter.  6:4-9.  *  Is.  6:3. 


132      ASPECTS  OF  TEE  INFINITE  MYSTEET 

man's  world.  The  same  idea  provides  society 
with  a  ground,  not  in  an  aggregation  of  atoms, 
but  in  the  Divine  world-mind.  Its  science,  art, 
order,  insight,  goodness  and  faith  are  justified 
out  of  the  Infinite  whose  spirit  is  manifest  in 
them.  This  idea  of  a  Divine  world-mind  creates 
hope  in  the  individual  that  his  desire  to  trans- 
cend his  individualism  is  not  vain.  His  life  is  in 
the  social  mind  of  his  world;  it  is  in  the  Absolute 
mind  inhabiting  all  worlds;  therefore  hospitality 
is  the  law  of  his  being,  answering  to  the  Eternal 
Mind,  whose  inevitable  indwelling  may  be  aug- 
mented by  the  invocation  and  welcome  of  the 
free  soul  of  man. 

The  philosophy  that  reduces  mind  to  the  posi- 
tion and  grade  of  an  incident,  that  elevates  to  the 
place  of  permanence  and  sole  reality  the  mind- 
less, is  in  dead  opposition  to  all  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  our  human  world.  Such  a  philosophy, 
when  in  earnest,  is  a  crusade  against  man,  and 
man's  essential  life.  It  can  prosper  and  prevail 
only  where  man  has  lost  insight  into  his  own 
world,  only  where  man  has  lost  faith  in  the  high- 
est attributes  of  his  own  being.  Again,  this  phi- 
losophy plunges  in  unrelieved  mystery  the  origin 
and  worth  of  mind,  and  the  highest  products  of 
mind;  it  becomes  the  negation  of  philosophy,  the 
demonstration  of  the  futility  of  thought.  For 
what  is  incidental  in  being  can  never  attain  to 


MAN  THE  HOST  OF  THE  INFINITE     133 

the  vision  of  what  is  essential  in  being.  Once 
more  such  a  philosophy  is  the  suicide  of  intellect; 
conscious  impotence  becomes  misery,  misery  when 
continued  must  find  a  cure;  if  the  curse  is  the 
supposition  that  thought  is  other  than  inciden- 
tal, the  cure  is  the  disregard  of  the  incident. 
These  philosophies  antithetic  to  the  fullness  of 
man's  world,  the  greatness  of  its  meanings, 
charm  only  for  a  time;  they  are  cut  flowers;  they 
swiftly  wither  and  die. 

The  philosophy  whose  insight  discovers  that 
mind  is  Ultimate  and  Eternal,  that  discerns  that 
all  worlds  are  built  in  mind,  that  they  spring  from 
mind,  that  the  special  world  of  man  has  its  being 
in  mind,  and  cannot  be  understood  apart  from 
the  Eternal  Mind,  alone  does  justice,  alone  pro- 
vides that  justice  shall  one  day  be  done  to  the 
sacred  interests  of  our  humanity.  The  universe 
the  bloom  of  mind;  the  Infinite  Mind  in  the  life 
and  bloom  of  the  universe,  the  Absolute  spirit  in 
all  the  transformations  of  finite  existence,  in  life 
and  growth,  in  decay  and  death;  here  is  the  philo- 
sophical insight  that  accords  with  Christian 
faith;  here  are  the  philosophy  and  the  religion 
that  promise  justice  to  the  fullness  and  worth  of 
human  life. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  HISTORIC  REALITY   OF  JESUS 

I 

The  consideration  of  the  historic  reality  of 
Jesus  raises  many  questions.  Reahty  has  many 
meanings  and  lives  in  an  ascending  order  of 
meaning,  culminating  in  the  sense  of  the  univer- 
sal and  final  reality.  There  is  the  question  of  the 
reality  of  the  objects  of  sense,  the  laws  of  nature 
as  announced  by  science,  the  physical  world,  the 
universe  as  a  phenomenon  in  space  and  time.  We 
inquire  again  as  to  the  reality  of  minds  other  than 
the  mind  of  the  inquirer :  the  reality  of  art,  of  the 
field  of  ideas;  the  reality  of  the  spirit  in  man  and 
in  the  universe.  The  question  of  reality  is  our 
universal  and  ultimate  question;  upon  our  answer 
will  depend  the  truth  or  the  nothingness  of  the 
world  in  which  we  live,  the  ideas  we  think,  the 
experiences  of  which  we  are  the  subject,  and  the 
beliefs  and  hopes  we  entertain.  The  inquiry  con- 
cerning the  historic  reality  of  Jesus  is  thus  a  sin- 
gle aspect  of  a  universal  human  interest. 

When  we  raise  the  issue  of  reality  we  come  into 
the  presence  of  one  of  the  subtlest  and  most 
diflScult  of  all  our  tasks.  When  instinct  and  com- 
mon sense  are  set  aside,  and  when  to  replace  these 


THE  HISTORIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     135 

powers  reflection  is  brought  into  service,  we  are 
at  once  thrown  into  confusion.  There  are  those 
who  ask,  may  not  Hfe  be  the  great  illusion  and 
death  the  great  reaUty,  may  not  life  be  death  and 
death  life?  This  complete  reversal  of  the  ordin- 
ary view  is  a  reversal  that  has  been  made  by  a 
multitude  of  superior  minds,  from  Socrates  down 
to  our  own  time.  To  these  minds  our  present  ex- 
istence is  like  the  existence  of  a  man  under  water; 
he  is  choked,  half-drowned,  death  is  like  the 
bringing  of  such  a  person  to  the  surface  and  to 
land,  where  he  can  breathe  the  air  purified  and 
gladdened  by  the  infinite  sunlit  spaces. 

There  is,  too,  our  trouble  about  visions.  Are 
they  unreal.^  Some  of  them  are  doubtless  unreal; 
others  it  would  be  foolishness  to  class  among  un- 
realities. There  is,  for  example,  Paul's  heavenly 
vision.  In  which  of  our  two  great  categories 
shall  we  place  this  experience?  Till  this  vision 
came,  Paul  was  in  the  grip  of  a  fatal  dualism; 
his  nature  was  divided;  he  was  torn  this  way 
and  that,  and  his  existence  became  for  him  an  in- 
supportable misery.  His  cry  of  despair  has  gone 
through  history,  O  wretched  man  that  I  am,  who 
shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death? 
His  vision  was  the  answer  to  this  cry.  It  first  of 
all  reconciled  the  man  to  himself,  gave  him  the 
standing  of  self-respect  in  the  presence  of  his  moral 
ideal,  wiped  out  progressively  the  division  in  his 


136      ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

heart,  and  filled  him  with  courage,  energy  and 
hope. 

The  vision  did  more:  it  turned  Paul  from  a 
destructive  to  a  humane,  constructive  force;  it 
developed  and  organized  the  faculties  of  his  soul, 
and  so  directed  them  that  he  became  one  of  the 
greatest  men  in  universal  history.  Nor  did  the 
vision  end  its  work  here.*  It  brought  Paul  into 
happy  relations  with  the  universe,  made  him  able 
to  look  beyond  the  wild  seas  and  tempests  of 
his  time  and  world,  to  the  splendor,  the  eternal 
sunset  out  there.  Surely  these  were  marvellous 
achievements.  A  vision  that  reconciles  a  man  to 
himself,  that  turns  him  from  a  destructive  to  a 
humane,  constructive  energy,  that  so  calls  forth 
his  latent  faculties  and  directs  them  as  to  lift  his 
life  to  the  highest  account,  and  that  brings  him 
to  the  mood  of  trust  and  peace  toward  the  In- 
finite Mystery,  cannot  safely  or  wisely  be  called 
unreal.*  Such  a  conclusion  would  fill  our  minds 
with  utter  confusion.  We  should  say  with  deeper 
emphasis  to  our  sceptic,  what  the  Irishman  who 
had  just  landed  in  New  York  said  to  his  brother 
who  had  preceded  him  and  become  a  citizen  and 
a  politician,  and  who  tried  to  drag  the  greenhorn 
from  the  spell  cast  over  him  by  Frederick  Doug- 
lass, the  mulatto,  "Come  away,  Tim,  he  is  only 
half  a  nigger.'*  "Faith,"  replied  Tim,  "if  half  a 
nigger  can  spake  like  that,  what  would  a  whole 


THE  HISTORIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     137 

one  do?  "  If  a  mere  vision,  a  dream,  a  shadow  of 
the  mind  thrown  outward  can  act  in  the  way  that 
it  did  in  the  history  of  Paul,  what  might  we  not 
expect  from  a  pure,  full-blooded  illusion?  This  is 
perhaps  enough,  at  least  to  suggest  the  subtle  and 
difficult  nature  of  the  inquiry  that  undertakes 
to  determine  the  characteristic  marks  of  the  real. 

Here  it  is  well  to  recall  the  prerequisite  of  the 
great  critic  and  in  a  word  to  describe  his  task. 
The  true  critic  must  be  a  lover  of  reality  over  the 
whole  breadth  of  experience.  Nothing  but  reality 
can  count  with  him;  his  faith,  homage,  worship, 
service  can  be  given  only  to  the  real,  and  to  the 
real  in  the  ascending  fullness  of  its  being.  For 
this  type  of  human  being  nonentity  is  the  super- 
lative abomination ;  all  avenues  that  lead  thither 
are  ways  that  take  hold  upon  death.  The  realm 
of  the  senseless,  the  meaningless  is  the  fit  abode 
only  of  those  who  have  sold  their  souls  to  Beelze- 
bub, and  the  king  of  shams. 

The  task  of  the  critic  is  to  let  nothing  unreal 
pass  as  real,  to  allow  nothing  real  to  pass  as  un- 
real. The  critic  is  thus  himself  on  trial.  During 
the  last  hundred  years  historical  criticism  has 
made  many  notable  additions  to  sure  knowledge; 
it  has  delivered  the  open  mind  of  the  world  from 
many  superstitions,  and  impositions.  The  his- 
torical criticism  of  the  Greek  classics  and  the 
Bible  are  instances  that  will  at  once  occur  to  the 


138      ASPECTS  OF  TEE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

reader.  The  literature  and  religion  of  Greece  lie 
in  a  far  clearer  light,  and  many  mists  that  hith- 
erto hung  round  them  have  been  blown  away. 
About  the  Bible  this  is  more  conspicuously  true. 
Its  folklore,  legends,  myths,  inimitable  stories, 
have  been  delivered  from  the  bondage  of  dogma. 
Now  all  men  may  be  charmed  by  their  poetry, 
and  sometimes  by  their  humanity.  The  moral 
and  religious,  domestic  and  social  development 
of  the  people  of  Israel  has  been  written  with  learn- 
ing and  power  in  a  thousand  books.  Here  the 
critic  has  shown  how  well  he  could  do  one  part  of 
his  work,  —  to  let  nothing  pass  for  other  or  more 
that  it  is,  to  let  nothing  unreal  pass  for  reality. 
Since  Kant  published  his  monumental  Cri- 
tiques, the  critical  mind  of  Europe  has  accom- 
plished great  things,  in  science,  in  the  field  of 
philosophical  ideas,  and  in  universal  history,  and 
especially  in  the  history  of  religion.  The  terror 
by  night  and  the  arrow  that  flieth  by  day  have 
done  their  work  well.  It  is  only  when  one  looks 
on  the  other  side  of  the  critic's  task,  —  to  allow 
nothing  real  to  pass  as  unreal,  that  one  discovers 
along  with  an  amazing  critical  achievement,  an 
amazing  critical  failure.  What  the  literature  of 
Israel  is  not,  what  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment are  not,  has  been  shown  with  great  learning 
and  power.  What  these  literatures  are,  why  they 
gained  and  why  they  have  held  their  unparalleled 


THE  HISTORIC  BEALITY  OF  JESUS     139 

sway  over  the  imagination  and  heart  of  the  best 
and  greatest  souls,  what  is  the  substance  of  their 
teaching  and  the  secret  of  their  influence,  are 
questions  that  have  been,  on  the  whole,  poorly 
answered.  It  must  be  added  that  the  signs  are 
few  that  the  critic  is  profoundly  alive  to  the  duty 
that  commands  him,  to  let  nothing  real  pass  into 
the  limbo  of  unreality.  Criticism  here  is  sorely 
in  need  of  criticism,  and  that  of  the  deepest  and 
most  unsparing  sort.  When  one  confesses,  in  the 
most  generous  way,  the  good  deliverances  that 
Biblical  criticism  has  wrought,  there  is  occasion 
enough  left  to  censure  the  heaps  of  wild  guesses, 
pure  conjecture,  unsupported  assumption  and 
absurd  invention  that  have  been  put  forth,  under 
the  name  of  science,  as  sure  knowledge.  The  lit- 
eratures preserved  in  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New  rose  out  of  insight  and  feeling,  and  took 
their  form  from  imagination  and  judgment  work- 
ing upon  unusual  experiences.  The  professional 
scholar  is  under  the  influence  of  the  idols  of  the 
theatre;  nothing  could  supplement  his  technical 
equipment  and  task  so  well  as  to  listen  to  a  lover 
of  the  literature  in  the  Bible  as  he  might  recount 
the  reasons  for  his  love;  the  layman  here  is  indis- 
pensable to  the  really  great  scholar.  Historical 
criticism  has  been,  perhaps,  too  critical  of  re- 
ceived opinions,  and  far  too  uncritical  of  itself. 
The  second  half  of   the  critic's  task  —  to  let 


140      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

nothing  real  pass  as  unreal  —  is  sure  to  receive 
new  emphasis  in  the  next  fifty  years. 

Hospitality  to  the  world  of  learning  and 
thought,  with  individuality  of  mind  and  inde- 
pendence of  judgment  clearly  maintained,  is  here 
the  great  object  of  desire.  The  imitative  mood  in 
philosophy  whether  as  controlled  by  the  Scottish 
school  or  by  the  Germans,  particularly  Hegel, 
was  broken  by  William  James.  He  was  widely 
open  to  what  was  going  on  in  all  parts  of  the 
world  of  intellect  in  his  own  department,  but  he 
was  nowhere  an  imitator.  He  looked  at  phenom- 
ena with  his  own  eyes,  invited  help  in  under- 
standing them,  always,  however,  reaching  con- 
clusions that  were  his  own.  He  was  a  liberator 
from  the  tyranny  of  imitation.  Dr.  Royce  has 
followed  in  the  same  path.  Profoundly  influenced 
by  Hegel  he  has  again  looked  at  life  with  his  own 
mind,  felt  his  obligation  to  life,  made  his  contri- 
bution to  human  thinking,  with  whatever  helps 
from  other  sources,  in  a  thoroughly  independent 
spirit.  These  two  American  thinkers  are  exam- 
ples of  a  great  number  who  are  equally  free  from 
the  imitative  mood,  who  consult  phenomena,  as 
the  matter  of  all  serious  philosophy,  and  who 
work  to  conclusions  by  the  energy  and  individu- 
ality of  the  free  mind. 

The  same  sort  of  thing  has  broken  out  in  Brit- 
ish thought,  never  at  any  time  wanting  independ- 


THE  HISTORIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     141 

ent  thinkers,  but  for  a  third  of  the  nineteenth 
century  under  the  domination  of  the  German 
mind.  To  be  closed  to  the  wealth  of  ideas  lying 
in  German  idealism  as  was  the  case  with  the  Brit- 
ish mind  in  the  first  third  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, was  a  serious  loss.  The  manliness  and 
vigor  of  J.  S.  Mill  hardly  compensated  for  his 
thinness  and  meagreness.  It  was  a  good  thing  to 
let  in  the  richness  and  novelty  of  German  ideal- 
ism, even  if  it  came  as  the  final  philosophical 
gospel,  and  in  a  somewhat  uncritical  way.  John 
and  Edward  Caird  served  their  generation  well  as 
free-traders  in  ideas,  as  prophets  of  German 
thought;  yet  it  was  evident  at  the  time,  and  it  is 
still  more  evident  today,  that  they  were  trying  to 
replace  one  philosophy  by  another;  they  were  in 
mind  subservient  to  the  intellectual  invader. 
The  Hegelians  of  the  two  decades,  1874-1894, 
have  faded  chiefly  because  their  work  was  imita- 
tive and  given  forth  in  the  spirit  of  the  advocate. 
Even  Thomas  Hill  Green,  by  far  the  ablest  of  the 
group,  apart  from  his  critical  Introduction  to 
Hume,  and  his  Prolegomena  to  Ethics,  works  too 
much  as  a  loyal  disciple  of  foreign  masters.  The 
greatest  merit,  perhaps,  of  F.  H.  Bradley  in  his 
"Appearance  and  Reality,"  and  in  his  recent 
book,  "Essays  on  Truth  and  Reality,"  is  the 
revolt  from  intellectual  servitude.  Mr.  Bradley 
is  under  immense  obligations  to  Hegel;  doubtless 


142      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

his  mind  has  been  formed  and  informed  by  the 
really  greater  thinkers  in  the  entire  course  of  his- 
tory, but  he  is  free,  and  criticism  has  made  him 
free  of  the  masters  nearest  to  his  type  of  thought. 
In  Bradley  British  philosophy  once  more  abjured 
the  imitative  mood,  revolted  from  subjection  to 
foreign  masters,  and  called  to  arms  the  metaphys- 
ical genius  of  his  race.  His  opinions  are  not  mine 
always,  perhaps  not  fundamentally;  they  need 
not  be  any  one's  opinions,  and  still  it  is  clearly 
possible  for  candid  men  everywhere  to  recognize 
his  great  services  in  behalf  of  independent,  criti- 
cal, thorough  intellectual  work. 

A  similar  state  of  mind  is  sure  to  prevail, 
sooner  or  later,  in  British  and  American  histori- 
cal criticism.  In  notable  instances  it  prevails  to- 
day, it  has  long  prevailed;  still  the  imitative 
mood  here  is  the  popular  mood.  What  is  native 
to  the  German  mind,  and  thoroughly  independ- 
ent, has  in  great  masses  been  taken  over  and 
adopted  by  British  and  American  scholars  with- 
out critical  concern  or  conscience.  As  German 
theories  change  almost  every  decade,  and  change 
through  incessant  critical  ferment,  the  British 
and  American  translation  and  adoption  becomes 
a  wearisome  task.  What  laymen  would  like  to  see, 
in  this  interesting  discipline,  is  the  production  of 
a  great  American  work,  not  necessarily  more  con- 
servative, rather  more  radical,  but  raising  the 


THE  HISTORIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     143 

whole  business  of  historical  criticism,  especially 
as  it  concerns  the  New  Testament,  and  again 
as  it  regards  Jesus,  to  an  issue  of  doubt.  What 
has  it  surely  done?  What  promise  does  it  reason- 
ably give  of  doing  anything  beyond  destruction? 
What  are  its  assumptions,  guesses,  methods, 
and  what  is  their  rational  worth?  A  work  of  pure 
scepticism,  directed  against  historical  criticism, 
in  the  department  named,  would  greatly  clear  up 
a  confused,  an  almost  intolerable  situation.  Anal- 
ysis and  elimination,  on  the  basis  of  arbitrary  per- 
sonal like  and  dislike,  have  done  their  work;  the 
theory  that  in  order  to  get  to  the  historical  situ- 
ation represented  by  an  ancient  literary  produc- 
tion, it  is  necessary  first  to  reduce  it  to  ribbons, 
perhaps  to  tear  it  to  tatters,  is  beginning  to  lose 
its  interest  for  sensible  men.  Canon  Cheyne, 
about  eighteen  years  ago,  published  an  edition 
of  the  book  of  Isaiah,  in  which  he  marked  off  the 
chapters,  and  even  the  paragraphs  in  the  same 
chapters,  which  he  was  sure  belonged  to  different 
times  and  seasons,  sometimes  centuries  apart,  by 
various  colors,  —  red,  pink,  green,  purple,  pale 
blue,  very  pale.  This  struck  me  at  the  time  as  the 
possible  truth,  and  if  so,  that  here  was  a  task  that 
only  the  omniscient  God  could  profitably  and 
safely  undertake.  Besides,  what  are  we  to  think 
of  such  a  method  of  literary  production?  It  was 
said,  by  the  scoffer,  that  Emerson  was  in  the 


144      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

habit  of  writing  down  his  thoughts  as  they  came 
to  him,  and  of  throwing  all  the  thoughts  into 
one  drawer  of  his  desk.  When  an  essay  was 
called  for,  the  drawer  was  emptied,  the  thoughts 
shuffled  and  arranged,  and  the  essay  was  thus 
produced.  This  caricature  of  Emerson  is  seri- 
ously applied  to  Isaiah  and  his  ancient  editors. 
It  would  seem  that  one  is  hardly  justified,  except 
as  a  last  resort,  thus  to  reduce  author  or  editor  or 
both  to  lunacy  or  want  of  conscience,  in  order 
to  buttress  a  theory.  General  cleavages  are  evi- 
dent, grand  outlines  obviously  declare  their  dif- 
ference; it  is  another  matter  to  reduce  criticism 
of  ancient  documents  to  the  play  of  a  puppy  with 
a  rag.  On  being  shown  Cheyne's  colored  Isa- 
iah, the  late  Professor  Fisher  of  Yale  remarked, 
"these  colors  will  fade." 

There  are  many  great  works,  by  British  and 
American  scholars,  to  which  these  remarks  have 
no  application.  Beyond  this  elect  company 
whose  judgment  is  as  wise  as  their  learning  is 
great,  the  imitative  mood  still  prevails.  Again 
let  it  be  said  that  historical  criticism  needs  criti- 
cism; that  it  needs  to  be  called  to  account  in 
its  assumptions,  methods,  uncritical  hospitality; 
that  it  needs  to  be  censured  out  of  its  subservi- 
ency to  authority,  and  into  self-respect  and  inde- 
pendence. "Son  of  man  stand  upon  thy  feet"; 
let  us  have  your  own  mind  upon  the  phenomena 


THE  HISTORIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     145 

in  question.  Separate  your  sure  judgments,  sup- 
ported by  evidence,  from  your  guesses;  deliver  us 
from  the  greatest  of  all  humbugs,  —  the  spirit  of 
the  age, — into  the  spirit  of  good  sense,  careful 
and  weighty  opinion,  and  if  possible  into  the  pure 
love  of  attainable  truth. 

II 

How  can  we  be  sure  of  the  historic  reality  of  a 
person  who  is  said  to  have  lived  two  thousand 
years  ago?  In  reply  it  must  be  admitted  that  here 
the  intellect  cannot  be  coerced.  Aristotle  admits 
that  in  regard  to  the  law  of  contradiction,  the  law 
that  says  it  is  impossible  for  the  same  thing  to  be 
and  not  to  be,  at  the  same  time,  and  in  the  same 
sense,  it  is  impossible  to  compel  belief.^  If  the 
opponent  shall  make  a  significant  statement,  he 
can  indeed  be  caught  and  impaled;  but  such  op- 
ponents know  better  than  to  venture  a  significant 
statement.  The  contentious  mind,  when  raised 
to  its  maximum  of  power,  cares  little  for  a  con- 
tradiction, and  nothing  at  all  for  unreasonable- 
ness. The  old  story  of  the  debate  between  the 
Englishman  and  the  Scot  as  to  which  country 
was  the  greater,  England  or  Scotland,  is  a  case 
in  point.  The  Englishman  having  apparently 
got  the  worse  of  the  encounter,  and  recalling  the 
fact  that  while  England  is  over  fifty  thousand 
*  Metaphysics,  book  in,  chapters  4  and  5. 


146     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

square  miles  in  extent,  Scotland  is  only  about 
thirty  thousand,  launched  his  final  drive  thus: 
You  will  admit,  will  you  not,  that  England  is 
larger  than  Scotland?  Immediately  came  the 
counter-drive:  No,  not  if  all  the  mountains  were 
levelled  with  the  sea.  Perversity  of  mind  is  proof 
against  both  history  and  geography. 

Ignorance  is  mighty,  is  indeed  irresistible.  In 
my  mission  field  in  Temple,  Maine,  there  was 
a  person,  of  some  intelligence,  who  stood  out 
against  the  theory  of  the  diurnal  rotation  of  the 
earth.  He  affirmed  that  he  had,  by  experiment 
refuted  the  theory  once  and  forever.  There  stood 
on  the  green  in  front  of  his  house,  a  pole.  This 
person  sat  up  till  the  family  retired  for  the  night; 
he  then  went  and  placed  an  apple  on  the  top  of 
the  pole.  He  sat  up  till  morning  watching  the 
experiment.  If,  said  he,  the  earth  rotates  every 
twenty-four  hours,  that  apple  will  be  on  the 
ground  when  the  pole  points  downward;  if  the 
apple  remains  secure  on  the  pole  at  sunrise,  and 
just  where,  and  as  I  put  it,  then  the  idea  of  the 
rotation  of  the  earth  is  pure,  unmitigated  hum- 
bug. If  such  minds  are  to  be  occasionally  en- 
countered in  the  field  of  exact  knowledge,  there 
should  be  no  surprise  when  they  are  met  in  the 
sphere  of  probable  knowledge.  High  probability, 
moral  certainty,  is  the  best  that  can  be  said  for 
any  event  or  person  in  universal  history. 


THE  HISTORIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     147 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  noted  that  it  is 
only  in  relation  to  important  events  and  persons 
in  the  past  that  we  feel  any  concern  or  anxiety. 
The  dead  names  in  history  excite  neither  anxiety 
nor  curiosity.  Consider  the  lists  of  the  kings  in 
the  early  Egyptian  dynasties.  If  one  is  not  an 
Egyptologist  one  does  not  care  whether  these 
names  denote  shadows  or  real  men.  They  have 
all  of  them  become  shadows,  they  have  ceased  to 
have  any  meaning  for  the  contemporary  world. 
The  king  whose  mummy  one  sees,  in  the  most 
splendid  of  all  the  tombs  of  the  kings  at  Thebes, 
with  an  electric  bulb  casting  its  light  upon  his 
poor  grinning  face  and  shrunken  frame,  in  spite 
of  imagination  and  sentiment,  becomes  a  sort  of 
ghastly  joke. 

"Imperious  Caesar,  dead  and  turn'd  to  clay. 
Might  stop  a  hole  to  keep  the  wind  away, 
O  that  that  earth,  which  kept  the  world  in  awe 
Should  patch  a  hole  to  expel  the  winter's  flaw." 

This  contrast  is  indeed  impressive  between  im- 
perial power  and  dust;  yet  the  dust  of  Imperious 
Caesar,  were  it  known,  would  stir  imagination 
and  awaken  feeling  impossible  in  the  case  of  the 
Egyptian  King,  because  Csesar  is  still  part  of 
the  living  world  of  men.  Wlien  the  man  under 
question  is  unimportant,  we  say,  let  him  pass 
for  something  or  nothing  as  you  like.  When 
the  greatest  person  that  ever  lived,  according 


148      ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY. 

to  Christian  belief,  is  under  question,  another 
method  must  be  followed. 

We  return  therefore  to  our  question.  How  can 
we  be  sure  of  the  historic  reality  of  any  man  who 
lived  generations  ago?  How  can  we  be  sure  of  the 
reality  of  any  man  who  lived  tw^o  thousand  years 
ago.^  The  answer  to  that  question  is  threefold. 
First,  by  the  effect  of  his  life  upon  the  life  of  his 
people  and  his  time.  Second,  by  the  image  of  his 
career  in  the  literature  that  he  inspired  and  cre- 
ated. And,  third,  by  the  permanence  of  his  cause, 
especially  when  his  personality  is  bound  up  with 
the  method  and  the  spirit  and  the  goal  of  his 
cause. 

Many  Christian  scholars,  altogether  too  many 
to  name,  among  vast  fundamental  contrasts  have 
yet  recognized  many  striking  resemblances  be- 
tween the  Athenian  Socrates  and  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth. Both  were  born  in  lowly  life,  both  were  bred 
to  a  trade;  Socrates  was  a  sculptor,  Jesus  was  a 
carpenter;  both  obtained  a  remarkable  education 
in  an  independent  and  an  original  way;  both  re- 
acted against  the  prevailing  intellectual  and  spir- 
itual condition  of  their  time,  both  exerted  an  im- 
measurable fascination  upon  elect  spirits  of  their 
own  generation;  both  had  a  momentous  cause, 
both  arrayed  against  themselves  finally  the  con- 
servative, the  orthodox,  the  powerful  class  in  their 
respective  communities,  and  both  died  by  the 


THE  HISTORIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     149 

hand  of  the  State.  Two  such  deaths  are  without 
parallel  in  the  history  of  mankind.  The  death  of 
the  Athenian  was  simple,  grave,  human;  it  was 
serene,  humble  in  faith  and  yet  victorious. '  The 
death  of  Jesus  opened  up  hitherto  unsuspected 
depths  in  the  life  of  humanity,  it  filled  the  world 
with  the  sense  of  his  tenderness  and  majesty;  it 
brought  to  new  light  the  whole  tragedy  of  human 
life,  and  the  conscience  and  pity  of  God.  * 

In  answering  the  question.  How  may  we  get  a 
reasonable  assurance  of  the  historic  reality  of 
Jesus,  I  take  the  way  that  to  myself  is  clearest 
and  most  impressive.  Others  would  take  a  differ- 
ent route;  my  purpose  is  to  use  the  historic  real- 
ity of  the  Athenian  Socrates  to  introduce  and 
illustrate  the  historic  reality  of  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth. 

Ill 
How  can  we  be  sure  that  Socrates  really  lived? 
He  wrote  nothing.  We  cannot  be  sure  that  a  sin- 
gle word  in  the  Greek  tongue  is  really  his.  How 
can  we  know  that  this  life,  lived  all  of  it  except 
one  year  in  the  fifth  century  before  Christ,  was  a 
real  life.f^  In  the  first  place  because  of  the  effect 
of  his  life  upon  the  life  of  his  time.  He  called 
round  him  a  great  company  of  the  brightest 
minds  of  his  time;  he  amazed  them  with  his 
acuteness  and  by  the  originality  of  his  character 


150      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEBT 

and  the  sereneness  and  the  greatness  of  his  pur- 
pose. 

He  went  about  trying  to  learn  from  the  men  of 
his  time  reputed  to  be  wise,  from  the  sophists, 
from  poets  and  poHticians,  and  he  found  that 
their  pretentions  were  groundless.  He  reduced 
them,  in  the  presence  of  these  young  men,  to 
humiliation  by  his  relentless  and  humorous  ex- 
posure of  their  ignorance.  He  attached  to  him- 
self these  young  men  who  followed  him,  he  de- 
lighted them,  he  became  their  great  master.  He 
thus  inaugurated  a  new  life  of  the  intellect  among 
the  Greek  people;  he  lifted  it  as  the  sea  is  lifted 
in  storm,  tossed  it  hither  and  thither,  till  it  testi- 
fied everywhere  of  the  power  of  his  presence. 

We  may  see  something  of  the  impact  of  the  life 
of  Socrates  upon  his  time  from  the  schools  that 
rose  in  consequence  of  his  life  and  teaching. 
Aristippus,  a  disciple  who  came  from  Cyrene  and 
who  went  back  there,  took  with  him  one  of 
Socrates'  ideas,  happiness,  as  the  chief  end  of 
life;  he  built  a  school  round  that  idea.  Another 
disciple,  called  Antisthenes,  took  the  Socratic 
idea  of  virtue,  as  the  chief  end  of  existence,  and 
built  at  Athens  a  community  of  thinkers  round 
that  idea.  Another  disciple,  Euclid,  who  was 
with  him  when  he  died  and  listened  to  his  last 
conversations  with  his  friends,  founded  a  school 
at  Megara;  he  took  the  dialectic  of  Socrates,  his 


THE  HISTORIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     151 

art  of  controversy,  and  built  round  that  method. 
Then  came  Plato,  who  took  over  his  master's 
method,  spirit,  ideas,  and  bound  them  in  the 
great  volume  of  his  own  philosophic  work  and 
genius. 

From  these  four  schools  came  four  others. 
From  the  school  founded  by  Aristippus  came 
the  Epicureans;  from  the  school  founded  by 
Antisthenes  came  the  Stoics;  from  Euclid  and  his 
school  came  the  sceptics;  from  Plato  and  the 
Academy  came  Aristotle  and  the  Lyceum. 

Eight  communities  of  scholars  and  thinkers,  if 
not  more,  owe  their  existence  to  the  impulse  of 
Socrates.  His  spirit  was  the  fountain  from  which 
all  drank;  but  for  him  these  schools  would  not 
have  been,  nor  would  they  have  become  what 
they  were,  even  if  we  were  to  suppose  for  them 
another  originator.  We  are  here  in  the  presence 
of  the  creative  power  of  a  great  personality,  a 
personality  that  began  a  revolution  in  the  method 
and  direction  of  philosophical  inquiry,  and  that 
stirred  the  mind  of  his  own  race  as  it  had  never 
been  stirred.  Standing  in  the  presence  of  this  first 
line  of  evidence,  his  influence  upon  his  own  time 
and  people,  it  would  seem  that  no  sane  mind  can 
doubt  the  reality  of  Socrates. 

The  second  line  of  evidence  we  find  in  the  im- 
age of  Socrates  as  that  image  is  reflected  in  the 
literature  that  he  inspired.  There  is  Xenophon's 


152     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

**  Memorabilia."  It  is  not  a  great  book;  it  is  not  a 
book  written  from  much  first-hand  information; 
it  is  composed  mostly  of  conversations  in  which 
Socrates  figures,  that  Xenophon  had  learned  and 
collected  from  those  who  knew  the  master  better 
than  he  knew  him.  No  doubt  Xenophon  knew 
Socrates;  no  serious  doubt  can  rest  upon  the 
story  that  he  tells  in  the  Anabasis  about  con- 
sulting Socrates  whether  he  should  join  the  expe- 
dition of  Cyrus  against  his  brother  Artaxerxes. 
No  doubt  Xenophon  revered  Socrates  and  sa- 
credly cherished  all  that  he  had  learned  from  him 
and  all  that  he  had  been  able  to  gather  concern- 
ing him  from  closer  friends.  Whatever  we  may 
think  of  the  picture  which  Xenophon  has  drawn 
of  his  master,  his  book  is  surely  a  good  witness 
for  the  reality  of  that  master.  That  conclusion 
holds,  even  if  we  contend  that  the  "  Memorabilia  '* 
as  we  possess  it  has  in  many  places  been  interpo- 
lated, and  in  all  edited  with  the  freest  hand.  The 
Xenophontean  tradition  living  in  the  book  is 
enough  for  our  purpose,  and  that  tradition  can- 
not reasonably  be  denied. 

To  this  must  be  added  the  testimony  of  Aris- 
tophanes, the  greatest  comic  poet  of  antiquity. 
It  need  not  be  believed  that  Aristophanes  disliked 
Socrates,  although  it  is  reasonable  to  think  that 
he  disapproved  of  his  method  and  ideas.  Aris- 
tophanes saw  in  Socrates  a  rarely  good  subject  for 


THE  HISTORIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     153 

comic  portraiture,  and  in  the  "Clouds,"  he  has 
done  his  comic  work  with  admirable  humor  and 
power.  He  pictures  Socrates  as  living  in  a  no- 
tion factory,  as  walking  in  the  air,  talking  im- 
measurable nonsense;  and  again  as  making  the 
worse  appear  the  better  reason,  and  corrupting 
the  youth  of  the  time.  This  caricature  is  a  wit- 
ness to  the  reality  of  Socrates,  and  a  contribu- 
tion to  the  understanding  of  the  man;  no  writer 
will  choose  to  caricature  a  fiction,  and  the  carica- 
ture is  simply  the  over-emphasis,  the  exaggera- 
tion, the  distortion  of  the  real  feature  of  the  per- 
son caricatured. 

Business  men  will  remember  that  in  1907,  when 
the  business  world  was  agitated  in  expectation  of 
a  panic  over  the  words  of  Colonel  Roosevelt,  then 
President  of  the  United  States,  about  his  pur- 
poses, and  when  the  country  was  living  in  anguish 
Colonel  Roosevelt  added  to  the  anguish  by  say- 
ing, "I  intend  to  keep  this  up  to  the  end  of  my 
term."  Whereupon  **  Punch  "  appeared  with  a 
cartoon  representing  the  American  eagle  covered 
with  soapsuds  and  the  President  turning  a  stream 
of  water  from  a  hose  upon  the  surprised  and  dis- 
mayed bird.  The  President  grinning  at  his  work 
says,  "  I  intend  to  keep  this  up  to  the  end  of  my 
term."  The  bird  looks  up  and  replies  with  horror, 
*'Jehosaphat!"  Two  hundred  years  hence,  or 
more,  that  caricature  would  be  a  good  witness  to 


154     ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

the  reality  of  President  Roosevelt  in  1907.  In 
the  same  way,  the  caricature,  life-like,  laughable, 
tremendous,  of  Aristophanes  is  a  witness  to  the 
reality  of  the  great  Athenian. 

Plato,  in  addition  to  his  amazing  philosophic 
insight,  is  one  of  the  greatest  dramatic  artists 
that  the  world  has  known.  The  entire  movement 
of  Greek  philosophy  till  his  own  time  is  repre- 
sented in  the  Dialogues  of  Plato.  His  approach 
to  the  history  of  thought  among  his  people  is  by 
the  method  of  Socrates.  That  method  trans- 
figured, and  made  part  of  the  highest  literature, 
rules  every  great  dialogue  that  Plato  wrote.  What 
ideas  Plato  carried  over  from  his  master  to  his 
own  work  is  matter  of  dispute;  that  he  carried 
over  the  method,  the  dialectic  of  his  master  is 
self-evident.  Indeed  it  would  be  impossible  to 
account  for  the  writings  of  Plato,  if  the  reality  of 
Socrates  should  be  denied.  Socrates  and  Plato 
are  inseparable  in  their  reality  and  in  their  work; 
no  scholar  will  ever  be  able  to  divorce  either  from 
the  other,  or  to  show  how  much  of  Socrates  is 
Platonic,  or  again  how  much  of  Plato  is  Socrates. 
Plato  would  have  it  so,  and  the  world  must  be 
content. 

There  is  the  witness  to  the  reality  of  Socrates 
from  the  permanence  of  his  cause.  John  Stuart 
Mill  said  that  students  of  philosophy  should  not 
forget  that  the  philosophic  movement  of  Europe 


THE  HISTOmC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     155 

began  with  a  man  whose  name  was  Socrates,  who 
lived  in  the  fifth  century  before  Christ.  The  vi- 
tahty  of  this  movement  today  testifies  to  the 
Hvixig  source  whence  it  issued,  as  the  movement 
of  the  ever-broadening  river  bears  witness  to  the 
fountain  high  up  among  the  mountains  in  which 
it  took  its  rise.  When,  therefore,  one  looks  at 
tlie  dynamic  of  Socrates  upon  his  age,  at  his  im- 
age as  reflected  in  the  literature  that  owes  its 
inspiration  to  him,  and  at  the  permanence  of  his 
cause,  one  must  say  that  to  doubt  the  reality  of 
this  man  would  be  to  proclaim  one's  self  a  victim 
of  pathology.^ 

IV 

We  turn  now  to  what  seems  to  me  the  immeas- 
urably more  important  question.  How  can  we  be 
sure  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  really  lived?  He 
wrote  nothing  and  the  words  that  we  trace  to  his 
lips  on  account  of  their  wisdom  and  their  beauty, 
their  preciousness  and  their  power,  we  trace 
through  others  who  brought  them  to  us.  There  he 
stands  out  beyond  the  written  word.  How  can  we 
know  that  he  really  lived? 

First  of  all  by  the  impact  and  power  of  his  life 

upon  the  life  of  his  people  and  his  time.  He,  too, 

fascinated  the  prophetic  youth  of  his  generation, 

calling  them  round  him  in  great  numbers;  he,  too, 

1  Quoted  by  Harnack.   What  is  Christianity,  p.  1. 


156     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

had  an  inner  circle  from  which  came  his  apostles. 
Apostles  and  disciples,  inner  and  outer  circles 
alike,  went  with  him  everywhere,  heard  him 
preach,  and  teach;  saw  him  as  a  great  healer, 
knew  him  as  a  wonderful  friend,  knew  him  as  the 
inaugurator  of  a  new  life  in  God.  Many  of  these 
disciples  survived  Jesus  a  whole  generation;  they 
carried  in  their  mind,  in  their  heart,  in  their  life, 
the  witness  to  the  transcendent  influence  which 
Jesus  wielded  upon  his  time.  Then  came  soon  af- 
ter the  death  of  Jesus,  Stephen,  the  first  martyr, 
who  was  the  first  to  see  the  universal  meaning  of 
the  message  of  the  Master.  Stephen  was  followed 
by  Saul  of  Tarsus,  whose  career  was  completely 
transformed  by  the  influence  of  Jesus.  To  this 
there  swiftly  succeeded  the  planting  of  new  com- 
munities in  Palestine,  in  Asia  Minor,  and  in 
Europe  as  far  as  Rome  and  beyond,  in  the  name 
of  Jesus.  For  twenty  or  twenty -five  years  after 
Jesus  died  there  were  no  writings  about  him;  only 
memoranda  of  his  parables  and  his  sayings  ex- 
isted, cherished  by  those  who  heard  his  wonderful 
words,  written  down  with  pious  care  and  held  in 
a  memory  that  could  not  lose  a  single  precious 
utterance.  Only  these  scattered  memorials  of 
Jesus  were  in  existence  for  twenty  or  five  and 
twenty  years  after  his  death;  yet  to  me  as  I  think 
of  them  those  twenty  or  five  and  twenty  years  are 
the  most  wonderful  in  the  history  of  the  world. 


THE  niSTOBIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     157 

Go  to  the  edge  of  that  epoch  and  stand  there; 
—  there  is  as  yet  no  written  gospel,  no  epistles, 
no  literature;  there  is  however  a  new  epoch  of 
life  in  men,  in  communities  of  men  in  God;  there 
is  an  oral  history  of  Jesus  and  his  time,  an  oral 
biography,  an  oral  gospel,  all  supported,  like  a 
mighty  fleet,  on  the  vast  deep  of  the  new  life  from 
God  working  in  the  world.  This  new  life  is  the 
great  thing  in  that  old  world;  it  means  moral 
power,  moral  fidelity,  moral  cleanness,  moral 
joy,  the  sense  of  a  Moral  Deity,  a  triumphant 
human  soul  singing  its  way  through  all  sorts  of 
hardships,  and  the  song  is  a  lyric  and  an  epic  in 
one.  That  is  the  first  tremendous  witness  to  the 
historic  reality  of  Jesus.  Any  man  with  imagina- 
tion, sympathy,  humanity  and  power  to  reach 
the  causes  of  things  cannot  but  be  immeasurably 
impressed  with  that  primitive,  vital,  creative, 
divine  testimony  to  the  reality  of  the  Lord. 

We  turn  now  to  the  image  of  the  career  of  Jesus 
in  literature.  There  is  not  a  word  about  Socrates, 
so  far  as  I  know,  outside  of  the  Greek  tongue. 
What  scholar  cares  for  that?  Barbarian  testi- 
mony is  of  little  account  anywhere  on  any  sub- 
ject. When  w^e  are  reminded  that  there  is  hardly 
anything  about  Jesus,  outside  of  his  own  race, 
why  should  that  count?  There  is  a  sentence  in 
Josephus  about  Jesus,  half  spurious,  half  gen- 
uine. Suppose  there  had  been  more,  what  could 


158     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

a  man  like  Josephus  know  about  Jesus?  There  is 
a  sentence  in  Tacitus  whose  genuineness  is  not 
open  to  reasonable  doubt,  which  gives  the  Roman 
point  of  view;  Christianity  is  for  the  greatest  of 
Roman  historians  an  execrable  superstition,  and 
its  Author  was  a  shameful  criminal  justly  put 
to  death.  The  literature  that  Jesus  inspired  and 
created  is  chiefly  found  in  the  New  Testament; 
for  wisdom,  for  faith  in  a  moral  Deity,  in  a  moral 
humanity,  here  is  the  most  precious  book  in  the 
possession  of  mankind;  and  the  central  figure  in 
it,  everywhere,  is  one  and  the  same.  One  can 
hardly  turn  a  page  of  any  gospel  or  epistle  without 
coming  upon  the  personality  of  Jesus.  Jesus  per- 
vades, fills  and  transcends  this  body  of  literature. 
Mark  sees  Jesus  from  one  point  of  view;  Mat- 
thew from  another;  Luke  from  another;  the 
fourth  gospel  is  a  philosophy  of  his  career,  a  meta- 
physic  of  him  and  his  religion.  These  documents, 
alike  in  much,  are  yet  characteristically  differ- 
ent. Paul  presents  Jesus  in  experience  and  also  in 
theory;  the  great  letter  to  the  Hebrews  gives  a 
distinctive,  independent  construction  of  the  same 
personality.  There  are  many  differences  of  view 
in  the  New  Testament;  the  books  are  however  at 
one  in  this :  —  these  writings  are  shadows  cast  by 
the  Lord;  they  are  images  of  his  mind,  perfect  or 
imperfect;  they  are  productions  of  the  genius  of 
Jesus  working  upon  the  men  who  wrote  them. 


THE  HISTORIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     159 

This  simple,  impressive,  monumental  witness 
to  the  reality  of  Jesus  strikes  home  to  the  heart; 
every  time  that  one  looks  into  one's  New  Testa- 
ment one  may  say,  "Here  is  a  body  of  literature, 
spiritually  the  most  precious  in  the  world,  hu- 
manly the  most  precious  in  the  world,  ethically 
the  most  precious  in  the  world.  This  great  body 
of  literature  never  would  have  been  but  for  the 
reality  of  the  Great  Inspirer." 

There  is  the  cause  of  Jesus  and  its  permanence. 
His  ideas  have  survived;  his  church  has  survived. 
His  great  word  for  the  institute  of  his  gospel  was 
the  kingdom  of  God,  the  kingdom  of  heaven;  as 
he  was  the  Son  of  Man  he  might  have  called  it 
the  kingdom  of  man.  However  named  or  defined 
his  cause  has  survived.  It  is  the  faith  not  only  of 
the  Christian  Church:  it  is  the  faith  of  the  civil- 
ized world  so  far  as  that  world  has  a  faith;  the 
only  good  outlook  for  humanity  is  the  outlook 
which  they  have  who  still  cherish  Jesus'  vision  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  in  the  hearts  of  men  and  in 
human  society.  Those  who  accept  this  kingdom, 
and  who  make  it  their  faith,  find  in  the  compan- 
ionship of  Jesus  their  greatest  incentive  and  their 
clearest  guidance. 

One  example  of  the  continuity  of  this  kingdom 
will  suffice.  Scholars  differ  widely  as  to  the 
meaning  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  No  sane  scholar 
ever  denied  that  Jesus  instituted  that  feast;  it 


160      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

was  instituted  at  the  close  of  his  final  observance 
with  his  disciples  of  the  great  national  feast  of  the 
passover.  There  is  room  enough  for  difference  of 
opinion  about  the  meaning  of  this  sacred  meal; 
about  the  fact  there  would  seem  to  be  no  reason- 
able doubt. 

Consider  therefore  the  fact.  Across  the  boiling 
stream  of  time  that  simple  religious  rite  stretches 
like  a  bridge  from  the  Upper  Room  to  the 
Church  of  Christ  today;  it  has  been,  in  one  form 
or  another,  continuously  observed  from  the  be- 
ginning till  now.  One  end  of  the  bridge  rests  in 
the  Upper  Room  where  Jesus  celebrates  the  Sup- 
per with  his  disciples,  the  other  in  the  communion 
table  today.  This  one  simple  selection  from  many 
that  might  be  made  is  an  impressive  witness  to 
the  continuity  and  perpetuity  of  the  Master's 
cause,  and  to  the  historic  reality  of  the  Master. 

I  have  several  times  used  the  word  sane  scholar, 
as  if  any  scholar  could  be  anything  else !  Let  me 
say  a  word  about  that.  It  will  be  recalled,  read- 
ily, that  Daniel  Webster,  in  his  great  eulogy  on 
Massachusetts,  in  his  second  speech  in  reply  to 
Colonel  Hayne,  used  these  words:  "There  is  Bos- 
ton and  Concord  and  Lexington  and  Bunker 
Hill;  and  there  they  will  remain  forever.'*  And 
yet  Webster  was  born  when  these  events  were 
seven  years  old;  he  received  at  second-hand  evi- 
dence of  their  existence;  we  are  far  away  from 


THE  HISTOBIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     161 

"Boston  and  Concord  and  Lexington  and  Bunker 
Hill,"  and  as  the  generations  advance  Americans 
will  find  themselves  farther  and  farther  away 
from  these  events.  What  did  the  orator  mean  by 
saying,  "and  there  they  will  remain  forever?" 
They  remain  forever  for  all  sane-minded  men, 
who  ask  only  such  evidence  as  can  be  given  in  the 
circumstances  and  who  are  swayed  by  reasonable 
expectation  and  influenced  by  reasonable  con- 
siderations. 

In  the  case  of  Jesus,  the  epoch  that  he  created 
by  his  personality,  the  literature  that  he  pro- 
duced by  his  inspiration,  the  permanence  of  his 
cause  with  which  he  is  forever  associated,  tell 
not  upon  the  man  who  wilfully  rejects  evidence 
or  who  asks  for  more  than  can  reasonably  be 
demanded;  these  considerations  are  for  open- 
minded,  reasonable,  candid  men.  For  candid 
men  the  historic  reality  of  Jesus  is  as  clear  and 
sure  as  that  of  any  leader  in  all  history.  "Proba- 
bility," not  demonstration,  as  Butler  said,  "is 
the  guide  of  life."  The  evidence  presented  here 
is  not  meant  to  compel  belief.  No  evidence,  not 
even  mathematical  evidence,  can  do  this;  it  is 
such  as  will  clearly  show,  I  am  convinced,  that 
the  denial  of  the  historic  reality  of  Jesus  is  foolish, 
that  the  same  sort  of  denial  would  reduce  to  fic- 
tion every  great  character  in  history,  that  it 
would  make  historical  science  impossible. 


162     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 


V 

When  we  have  vindicated  the  historic  reahty 
of  Jesus  we  are  still  far  from  the  vision  of  him 
that  has  been  the  beatitude  of  the  disciple  in  all 
the  ages  of  Christian  faith.  Is  it  possible  to  see 
Jesus?  Further,  is  it  possible  to  so  present  him 
that  others  shall  see  him?  Granting  that  the 
Gospels  are  genuine  memorials  of  Jesus,  trust- 
worthy in  general  outline  and  in  substance,  they 
are  nothing  more  than  symbols,  a  sacred  hiero- 
glyph that  can  be  deciphered  only  by  imagina- 
tion and  sympathy.  We  are  nearly  two  thousand 
years  away  from  the  person  and  the  times  of 
Jesus;  whole  worlds  of  thought,  tradition,  custom 
intervene.  Has  Jesus  been  misunderstood,  actu- 
ally concealed  by  the  homage  of  his  church,  and 
is  it  at  this  date  possible  for  one  to  do  other  than 
accept  or  reject  the  ecclesiastical  tradition?  Is  it 
possible  to  test  this  tradition  by  the  personal 
vision  of  the  great  Master?  I  believe  that  it  is 
possible;  at  the  same  time  I  am  keenly  aware  of 
its  difficulties.  Carlyle's  Norse  myth  may  serve 
our  purpose  here: 

"Balder  the  white  Sungod,  say  our  Norse 
Skalds,  Balder,  beautiful  as  the  summer-dawn, 
loved  of  Gods  and  men,  was  dead.  His  Brother 
Hermoder,  urged  by  his  Mother's  tears  and  the 
tears  of  the  Universe,  went  forth  to  seek  him.  He 


THE  HISTORIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     163 

rode  through  gloomy  winding  valleys,  of  a  dismal 
leaden  color,  full  of  howling  winds  and  subterra- 
nean torrents;  nine  days;  ever  deeper,  down 
towards  Hela's  Death-realm:  at  Lonesome 
Bridge,  which,  with  its  gold  gate,  spans  the  River 
of  Moaning,  he  found  the  Portress,  an  ancient 
woman,  called  Modgude,  *the  Vexer  of  Minds,* 
keeping  watch  as  usual :  Modgude  answered  him, 
*  Yes,  Balder  passed  this  way;  but  he  is  not  here; 
he  is  down  yonder,  —  far,  still  far  to  the  North, 
within  Hela's  Gates  yonder.'  Hermoder  rode 
on,  still  dauntless,  on  his  horse,  named  'Swift- 
ness' or  *Mane  of  Gold';  reached  Hela's  Gates; 
leapt  sheer  over  them,  mounted  as  he  was;  saw 
Balder,  the  very  Balder,  with  his  eyes:  —  but 
could  not  bring  him  back."  ^ 

It  may  be  admitted  at  once  that  an  adequate 
view  of  Jesus  is  impossible,  that  to  see  him  as  he 
was,  and  to  show  him  to  our  time  as  he  appeared 
to  his  most  intimate  friends  in  his  own  time,  is 
beyond  the  power  of  man.  This  confession  is, 
however,  not  peculiar  to  Jesus,  as  Carlyle's 
Norse  story  plainly  shows.  It  cannot  be  claimed 
that  any  scholar  has  the  genius  to  see  any  great 
hero  of  antiquity  as  he  was  seen  by  those  who 
knew  him  best;  still  less  can  we  allow  to  any 
writer  the  power  wholly  to  present  his  vision. 

^  Oliver  CromwelVs  Letters  and  Speeches,  by  Thomas  Car- 
lyle,  p.  12. 


164     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

Here  we  touch  the  root  of  the  endless  quarrel 
over  the  three  portraits  of  Socrates  that  have 
come  down  to  us.  We  cannot  allow  that  Xeno- 
phon's  plain,  prosaic  narrative  at  all  accounts 
for  the  great  Athenian  rationalist  and  mystic. 
Nor  would  it  be  safe  to  conclude  that  Socrates 
was  all  that  Plato  in  all  his  dialogues  represents 
him  to  be.  Nor  again  can  we  accept  the  comic 
picture  of  Socrates  drawn  by  Aristophanes  as  the 
truth.  What  then?  Are  we  compelled  to  admit 
that  we  have  three  fancy  sketches  of  Socrates, 
and  that  the  mind  and  character  of  the  real  man 
are  forever  inaccessible  to  us?  Whatever  answer 
we  return  to  this  question,  we  shall  agree  that  it 
brings  before  the  mind  the  impossibility  of  gain- 
ing an  adequate  view  of  any  great  man  belong- 
ing to  a  vanished  world,  and  the  difficulty  of  get- 
ting any  view  that  shall  be  a  reasonable,  living 
likeness. 

Our  trouble  does  not  end  here.  The  difficulty 
of  gaining  anything  like  a  fairly  adequate  view  of 
the  mind  of  a  contemporary  is  very  great.  Even 
where  the  material  is  abundant,  the  intercourse 
prolonged  and  close,  the  task  of  interpretation  is 
certainly  not  easy.  One  evidence  of  this  fact  is 
the  comparatively  small  number  of  good  biogra- 
phies, books  that  reveal  through  the  material 
presented  the  mind  of  the  man  thus  recalled. 
Probably  there  do  not  exist  in  any  language  a 


THE  HISTORIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     165 

hundred  really  good  biographies;  records  that 
carry  in  them  the  meaning  of  the  career  they  de- 
pict, that  conserve  and  present  the  veritable  soul 
of  the  man  as  he  lived  and  toiled  in  the  fields  of 
time.  The  main  reason  for  this  vast  failure  is  not 
usually  the  lack  of  material;  the  chief  reason  is 
far  more  serious:  it  is  the  quality  of  imagination, 
imagination  unvitalized  by  sympathy,  unfilled 
with  the  discerning  eyes  of  love,  unused  to  the 
great  art  of  brooding  its  subject,  as  the  spirit  of 
God  brooded  the  chaos,  bringing  from  it  in  due 
time  a  world  order.  The  genius  that  comes  from 
love  and  patience,  that  works  upon  collected  and 
ordered  data,  is  the  only  human  power  that  can 
tolerably  recall  and  re-vivify  the  past.  Without 
this  power  the  historian  gives  us  mummies,  not 
men;  scholars  give  us  in  Jesus,  not  the  supreme 
prophet  and  charactea*  but  a  mangled  wraith 
brought  hither  from  the  Judea  of  bare,  blind  fact. 

As  a  preliminary  every  ancient  document  must 
be  approached  by  the  aid  of  grammar,  lexicon  and 
the  history  of  the  times;  but  such  approaches 
are  only  preliminary;  they  will  not  conduct  to  the 
goal,  the  vision  of  the  life  behind  the  document. 
There  is  a  more  excellent  way  along  which  they 
must  go  who  wish  insight.  This  way  I  may  de- 
scribe, as  it  appeared  in  the  light  of  experience, 
many  years  ago. 

In  the  autumn  of  1878,  a  friend  of  mine  went 


166      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

to  Harvard  College  to  study,  chiefly  Greek  and 
philosophy.  He  had  completed  his  course  in  the 
Divinity  School,  and  had  served  a  year  as  a 
Home  Missionary  in  Maine.  He  was  eager  to 
know  something  more  of  the  great  world  of 
thought,  and  to  be  guided  among  its  mazes  by 
candid  and  competent  teachers.  With  this  pur- 
pose he  came  to  Harvard,  at  a  time  when  the 
foundations  of  the  intellectual  life  of  the  world 
were  being  moved.  He  selected  his  courses  and 
his  teachers;  he  soon  found  that  his  teachers  were 
extraordinary  men,  experts  in  their  vocation, 
friendly  and  kindly,  beyond  all,  lovers  and  serv- 
ants of  the  truth.  He  found,  too,  that  his  courses 
brought  him  into  comparison  with  the  best  and 
the  worst  that  had  been  said  about  man  as  a 
spiritual  being,  that  they  set  in  battle  array  the 
strongest  in  behalf  of  the  spiritual  interpreta- 
tion of  the  universe  and  the  strongest  against 
it,  to  be  found  in  the  records  of  human  thought. 
This  was  the  opportunity  upon  which  he  had  set 
his  heart;  the  great  hour  of  trial  had  come. 

Our  student  thought  it  wise  to  provide  himself 
with  spiritual  food  for  the  journey.  All  beliefs 
about  the  universe,  about  the  value  and  the  des- 
tiny of  human  life,  had  indeed  been  declared,  for 
the  time  being,  provisional  and  in  question;  still 
the  practical  conduct  of  existence  remained  a 
necessity,  and  there  must  be,  to  sustain  the  spirit 


THE  HISTORIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     167 

in  its  moral  struggle,  daily  bread  for  daily  need. 
Our  student  had  been  bred  to  revere  the  Bible;  he 
had  been  fairly  well  trained  in  the  serious  study 
of  the  New  Testament.  He  could  use  his  Greek 
Testament  with  ease,  and  the  outside  of  that 
wonderful  collection  of  books  lay  reasonably  clear 
in  his  understanding.  Neither  was  he  altogether 
destitute  of  glimpses  into  the  region  of  the  spirit 
represented  by  this  body  of  literature.  He  con- 
cluded that  as  the  time  of  crisis  had  come,  he 
would  set  apart  one  half  hour  every  morning 
for  close  and  inward  study  of  the  Gospels.  He 
had  inherited  the  belief  that  Jesus  was  the  high- 
est mind  that  had  ever  appeared  in  the  things  of 
the  soul;  he  thought  it  only  fair  to  this  inherit- 
ance to  stand  by  it,  till  under  test  it  should  either 
give  way,  or  come  forth  rationally  approved. 

The  method  of  study  was  roughly  somewhat  as 
follows.  A  section  of  a  chapter  in  the  Gospels 
was  carefully  read  in  the  Greek.  The  topography 
present  or  implied  in  the  portion  read  was  mi- 
nutely and  vividly  imagined;  the  scene  including 
the  face  of  nature  and  the  light  and  color  that 
rested  on  it,  the  groups  of  human  beings,  their 
needs,  quest,  distress,  as  they  stood  out  against  the 
national  life,  and  the  figure  of  the  Master  were 
reproduced  as  clearly  and  simply  as  possible. 
Then  came  for  consideration  the  wisdom,  influ- 
ence and  power  of  the  Teacher  and  Healer.  What 


168      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

he  was  said  to  have  done  was  noted,  and  the 
question  came.  Can  he  do  anything  now?  Can  he 
help  a  soul  to  find  light,  certainty,  wisdom,  moral 
security  and  progress?  He  was  described  as  a 
Teacher  sent  to  his  people  from  God.  Could  he 
lead  a  seeker  after  God,  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
to  his  goal? 

These  questions  could  not  be  answered  in  a 
day.  The  urgency  of  the  questions  kept  our  stu- 
dent going  for  months,  for  years,  for  decades,  in 
the  use  of  the  method  described.  The  Gospels, 
the  Epistles,  the  entire  New  Testament  became 
a  series  of  symbols,  an  order  of  sacred  hiero- 
glyphics, whose  meaning,  if  they  possessed  any 
profound  and  everlasting  meaning,  must  be  dis- 
covered by  the  action  of  the  whole  mind.  Gram- 
mar, lexicon  and  history  must  lead  the  way;  the 
sifted  data  must  be  seen  in  perspective;  the  unes- 
sential, such  as  the  miracles,  and  especially  that 
which  certain  scholars  of  today  make  funda- 
mental, all  apocalyptic  words,  must  be  disre- 
garded, not  as  necessarily  untrue,  but  whether 
true  or  false,  as  unintelligible.  Upon  this  ethical, 
ideal,  spiritual  residuum  imagination  was  ap- 
plied, as  the  organ  of  sympathy  and  love.  Brood- 
ing inquiry  took  the  place  of  dialectic,  the  passion 
to  understand  of  the  desire  to  criticize.  The  re- 
sult was  the  surprise  of  our  student's  vexed  life; 
slowly  there  dawned  upon  him  that  sacred  Syrian 


THE  HISTORIC  REALITY  OF  JESUS     169 

land;  slowly  its  ranges  of  hills  and  fertile  plains 
fell  into  due  order;  slowly  the  light  of  the  sun  and 
the  stars  rested  upon  them;  life  and  color  came 
again  to  the  face  of  nature;  the  people  lived  once 
more  among  whom  Jesus  walked  and  taught;  and 
slowly  there  rose  the  strange,  mysterious  person 
of  the  incomparable  friend  of  man  and  Prophet  of 
the  Soul  of  the  universe,  till  our  student  thus  led 
felt  it  to  be  not  presumption  but  the  simple, 
august  truth  to  cry  out  in  his  joy ,  "I  have  seen 
the  Lord  face  to  face." 

Paul's  method  must  have  been  something  like 
this,  only  richer  and  greater.  He  went  into 
Arabia;  he  took  all  that  he  knew  of  the  earthly 
life  of  Jesus,  all  that  had  come  to  him,  as  by  light- 
ning flashes,  out  of  heaven,  from  the  soul  of  Jesus, 
with  him  into  Arabia.  There  he  visualized,  we 
may  well  believe,  the  earthly  aspect  and  the 
heavenly;  there  he  brooded  upon  the  mystery  for 
three  years;  there  he  related  it  to  the  history  and 
hope  of  his  nation;  there  he  related  it  more  and 
more  profoundly  to  his  own  human  problem; 
there  he  wondered  as  to  its  bearing  upon  the  hu- 
manity of  man.  From  this  seclusion,  and  from 
the  use  of  this  method,  Paul  returned  with  a 
vision  of  God's  help  in  Jesus  for  his  nation  and 
for  mankind.  It  was  an  interpretation  condi- 
tioned and  unconditioned;  it  had  a  soul  clear 
as  truth  and  permanent  as  the  spiritual  need 


170      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

of  man;  it  had  a  body  built  out  of  the  intel- 
lectual and  religious  world  in  which  Paul  lived. 
There  are  many  atmospheres  and  some  are 
clearer,  others  dimmer;  but  all  atmospheres,  at 
one  time  or  another,  enable  those  who  look 
through  them  to  see  the  bright  and  everlasting 
stars.  All  ages  have  their  intellectual  moods, 
customs,  conditions ;  if  men  are  to  see  the  Eternal 
it  must  be  through  the  temporal.  Some  ages  are 
lighter,  some  less  light;  but  all  conditions  admit, 
some  of  the  time,  the  beatific  vision. 

Horace  Bushnell,  a  great  spirit  in  the  religious 
life  of  our  country,  came  one  day  from  his  study 
into  the  room  where  his  family  was;  there  he 
stood  with  a  face  lighted  like  the  sunrise.  His 
wife  said  to  him,  "What  have  you  seen?'*  His 
reply  was,  "I  have  seen  the  Gospel!"  That  vi- 
sion cannot  be  gained  from  mere  history  or  from 
mere  reasoning  on  historic  data;  only  by  brood- 
ing, only  by  the  opening  of  the  whole  nature  to 
what  is  brooded  upon,  only  by  candor,  that  rarest 
quality  in  the  human  mind,  by  sincerity,  invoca- 
tion of  the  truth,  whatever  the  truth  may  be,  and 
readiness  to  go  with  the  truth  whithersoever  it 
may  lead;  only  thus  can  men  come  to  the  great 
final  achievement,  not  only  to  see  the  figure  of 
Jesus  with  the  historic  eye,  but  to  behold  some- 
thing of  the  meaning  of  his  soul  for  the  world. 

This  dicussion  may  fittingly  end  with  the  great 


THE  HISTORIC  BEALITY  OF  JESUS     111 

warning  of  the  Master  as  to  the  sure  way  to  ap- 
proach the  universal  meaning  of  his  Soul  and 
message.  No  one  knoweth  the  Son  save  the 
Father.  No  human  soul  can  be  understood  apart 
from  God;  no  man's  higher  nature  can  be  appre- 
hended except  in  and  through  the  being  and  love 
of  God.  Mere  animals  all  men  will  remain,  creat- 
ures of  time  and  space  only,  workers  and  sufferers 
under  the  sun,  shorn  of  all  transcendental  import, 
till  they  are  seen  through  their  relation  to  the 
Infinite  love.  If  this  is  the  case  with  men  of  ordi- 
nary magnitude,  how  shall  we  approach  and  lay 
hold  of  something  of  the  significance  of  the  one 
subHmest  Soul  in  all  history,  unless  we  come  to 
behold  him  in  his  relation  to  his  Father? 


CHAPTER  VII 

MAN  AND  THE  MORAL  IDEAL 
I 
The  moral  ideal  may  be  described  as  the  insight 
or  dream  as  to  what  life  should  be,  and  by  human 
endeavor,  in  a  friendly  world,  may  become.  It  is 
the  vision,  according  to  one's  light,  of  the  su- 
preme good,  or  some  important  aspect  of  it,  con- 
ceived under  the  form  of  privilege  and  obligation, 
and  reflected  in  the  colors  and  splendors  of  imag- 
ination. That  the  ideal  is  conceived  as  privilege  is 
plain  since  it  is  seen  as  the  sovereign  good;  that  it 
is  regarded  and  felt  as  obligation  is  clear,  since 
one  is  under  bonds  to  lift  life  to  this  complete 
satisfaction.  The  moral  ideal  unites  the  awe  that 
duty  inspires,  and  the  gladness  that  goes  with  the 
sense  of  privilege,  because  duty  and  privilege 
alike  rise  out  of  the  vision  of  the  Eternal  good. 
That  this  vision  may  command  the  whole  power 
of  feeling  and  appeal  to  the  will  with  the  greatest 
might  it  must  be  reflected  in  the  hues  and  fires  of 
the  imagination. 

The  indestructibility  of  the  ideal  appears  from 
the  fact  that  mankind  are  guided  by  the  sense  of 
the  future,  by  the  expectation  of  good.  If  the 
ideal  were  to  die  all  movement  and  action,  other 


MAN  AND  THE  MORAL  IDEAL  173 

than  purely  automatic,  would  vanish  from  the 
world.  Absolute  pessimism  means  absolute  stag- 
nation and  death.  Truth  is  sought  as  a  satisfac- 
tion, that  is,  as  a  good;  so  beauty  is  sought,  in- 
ward worth,  conformity  of  will  and  being  to  the 
Highest.  All  these  are  ideals:  they  allure  under 
the  form  of  the  future;  because  they  remain  im- 
perishable, science  lives,  art  lives,  philosophy 
continues  to  advance  and  religion  retains  its 
unquenchable  interest  for  human  beings.  Where 
the  ideal  dies  the  man  ceases  to  hope.  If  one  be- 
comes a  sceptic  as  to  the  validity  of  scientific 
conclusions  that  moment  science  ceases  to  be  a 
serious  concern,  and  if  pursued,  it  is  pursued  as 
the  result  of  habit  or  as  an  amusement.  Still 
more  evidently  feeling  enters  into  Art.  The  day 
that  beauty  ceases  to  excite  the  hope  of  its  appro- 
priate satisfaction,  that  day  beauty  dies  and  Art 
is  no  longer  a  possibility.  The  wonder  of  the  Uni- 
verse inspires  philosophy,  and  the  hope  of  seeing 
a  little  way  into  this  soul  of  wonder  sustains  the 
philosopher  at  his  task.  When  he  has  lost  faith  in 
the  possibility  of  any  insight  whatever  into  the 
Universal  mystery,  his  career  is  ended.  The  hope- 
less philosopher  is  a  paralytic;  he  leads  a  dying 
life.  Religion  at  its  highest  justly  conceives  God 
as  the  God  of  hope.  The  future  is  the  sphere  of 
hope;  all  ideals  look  to,  and  are  versions  of  the 
future,  and  the  God  who  was  and  who  is,  —  the 


174     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEEY 

Ancient  of  Days  and  the  contemporary  Deity,  — 
is  also  the  God  who  is  to  come.  All  ideals  have 
their  origin,  their  chastisement,  their  support, 
and  their  realization  from  God.  They  are,  there- 
fore, as  imperishable  as  the  soul  is  surely  a  pil- 
grim of  the  world  that  is  to  be,  as  imperishable 
as  the  being  of  God.  Hope  springs  eternal  in  the 
human  breast,  because  his  Maker  has  put  eter- 
nity in  man's  heart. 

It  is  strange  that  the  feeling  of  unfulfilled  de- 
sire, reflected  in  imagination  and  projected  into 
the  future  should  be  the  central  moving  energy 
in  life.  Yet  so  it  is.  It  is  perhaps  still  stranger 
that  when  this  desire  is  defeated  on  one  level  of 
existence  it  should  rise  to  another,  transform  its 
character  and  again  govern  our  actions.  It  is 
strangest  of  all  that  when  the  desire  of  good  has 
been  defeated  through  the  entire  experience  of 
the  individual,  and  in  the  case  of  the  race,  over 
the  whole  breadth  of  history,  this  same  desire  of 
good,  this  passion  for  the  ideal,  wise  or  unwise, 
should  renew  itself  in  the  youth  of  the  world,  and 
that  the  ideal  itself  should  rise  as  from  the  dead, 
reappear  in  the  van  of  humanity,  and  like  a  pillar 
of  fire,  light  with  alluring  brightness  the  great 
future.  Here  is  something  inevitable.  Is  it  the 
irony  of  fate  or  the  fresh  apocalypse  of  God? 

The  moral  ideal  is  indestructible;  its  life  is  co- 
eval with  the  life  of  humanity.  This  indestructi- 


MAN  AND   THE  MORAL  IDEAL  175 

bility  reveals  itself  through  a  history  of  muta- 
tions. What  Shelley's  "Cloud"  sings  of  itself  is 
true  of  our  highest  ideals: 

"I  am  the  daughter  of  earth  and  water. 
And  the  nursling  of  the  sky; 
I  pass  thro'  the  pores  of  the  ocean  and  shores, 
I  change  but  I  cannot  die." 

Our  highest  ideals  change,  but  they  cannot  die. 

Consider  the  highest  dream  of  Christian  faith 
that  God  is  on  the  side  of  Humanity.  The  early 
Christians  seized  on  the  death  of  Jesus:  "He  that 
spared  not  his  own  son,  but  delivered  him  up  for 
us  all,  how  shall  he  not  also  with  him  freely  give 
us  all  things."  ^  Then  came  the  Christian  reason, 
if  such  it  can  be  called,  aad  its  endeavor  to  ac- 
count for  the  value  of  the  death  of  Jesus  as  proof 
that  God  is  on  the  side  of  our  sinful  race.  The 
death  of  Jesus  was  a  ransom  paid  to  Satan;  so  it 
was  held.  In  consequence  of  the  fall  of  Adam,  the 
race  being  implicated  in  that  primal  calamity, 
the  devil  owned  mankind.  One  glorious  death, 
voluntarily  endured,  provided  by  the  Almighty, 
bought  back  into  freedom  a  captive  humanity. 
As  time  passed  this  form  of  the  meaning  of  the 
great  witness  of  God's  love  for  man  became  in- 
credible. The  view  that  the  death  of  Jesus  was 
an  expiation  offered  to  an  offended  Deity  fol- 
lowed; in  consequence  of  this  offering,  God's 
1  Romans  8 :  32. 


176     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

good  will  to  man  returned.  That  view  could  not 
last,  although  it  showed  a  sad  vitality  and  died 
hard.  Then  came  the  idea  of  substitution;  the 
temporal  death  of  Jesus  was  substituted  for  the 
eternal  or  spiritual  death  of  man.  That  view, 
while  uncovering  the  great  principle  of  vicarious- 
ness  inseparable  from  the  life  of  love  and  service 
in  time,  did  not  work,  and  passed  away.  The 
death  of  Jesus,  so  it  was  next  held,  satisfied  the 
injured  majesty  of  law;  man  could  thus  obtain 
pardon  when  his  doom  would  otherwise  be  that 
of  an  eternal  outcast;  God  could  thus  be  at  once 
just  and  merciful,  not  winking  at  or  making  light 
of  sin,  and  yet  full  of  pity  toward  the  sinner.  As 
men  continued  to  think  in  the  atmosphere  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  and  in  the  light  of  their  own 
best  experiences,  this  view  seemed  utterly  vain 
and  was  accordingly  dismissed.  As  successor  to 
this  view  there  came  the  moral  idea  of  Jesus' 
death.  Jesus  died  in  fulfilment  of  his  vocation; 
his  death  was  the  sovereign  expression  of  his 
faithful  soul,  and  of  the  soul  of  God  who  enabled 
him  to  be  faithful.  Last  of  all  something  far  sim- 
pler has  come.  The  redeeming  passion  in  Jesus 
that  carried  him  to  a  glorious  death,  is  the  image 
of  the  redeeming  passion  in  God.  This  view  is 
read  out  of  the  substance  and  soul  of  the  life  of 
Jesus;  it  is  read  up  into  the  soul  of  God,  since  all 
that  Jesus  was,  he  was  by  the  gift  and  grace  of 


MAN  AND  THE  MORAL  IDEAL         111 

God.  This  idea  of  the  value  of  the  death  of  Jesus 
may  be  read,  out  of  every  high  soul  in  the  service 
of  man,  in  one  degree  or  another;  and  again  into 
God's  life  who  is  the  ultimate  Inspirer  and  Sus- 
tainer.  The  ideal  of  faith,  that  God  is  on  the  side 
of  man,  has  passed  through  all  these  mutations, 
rising  higher  with  each  new  manifestation,  till  it 
is  seen  to  be  essential  to  the  life  of  a  spiritual 
humanity,  essential  to  the  life  of  God,  conceived 
to  be  the  Infinite  Father. 

Heaven  and  hell  are  primarily  ideals  of  future 
bliss  and  woe,  ideals  absolute  and  in  absolute 
realization.  The  transmutations  through  which 
these  ideals  have  passed  disclose  the  permanence 
of  the  ideal  amid  its  variable  forms.  It  is  strange 
to  find  in  Omar  Khayyam,  that  magnificent 
poem  of  atheism  and  wild  mockery,  a  form  of  the 
ideal  that  cannot  pass  away: 

"I  sent  my  soul  thro'  the  Invisible 
Some  letter  of  that  After-life  to  spell : 
And  by  and  by  my  soul  returned  to  me 
And  answered,  'I  myself  am  Heaven  and  Hell.' 
Heaven  but  the  vision  of  fulfilled  Desire. 
And  Hell  the  shadow  from  a  Soul  on  fire." 

Here  there  are  two  images  in  the  mind,  one  of 
infinite  joy,  and  the  other  of  infinite  woe.  In  his 
teaching  we  find  Jesus  presenting  his  ideals  of  the 
future  world  by  means  of  the  popular  beliefs 
about  Hades.  In  Hades  there  were,  so  to  speak, 


178     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

two  departments,  each  within  sight  of  the  other, 
the  one  a  place  of  happiness  and  the  other  a  place 
of  misery.  The  rich  man  is  in  Hades,  in  torment; 
Lazarus  is  in  bliss;  they  are  within  sight  of  one 
another;  they  speak  and  answer  across  the  fixed 
gulf  that  separates  the  regions  in  which  they  live. 
There  is  no  more  reason  to  think  that  Jesus  be- 
lieved in  Hades,  other  than  as  a  symbol,  than  to 
suppose  that  Plato  believed  in  Tartarus.  Primi- 
tive views  were  crass  in  their  materialism;  the 
happiness  was  physical,  as  in  the  happy  hunting 
ground  of  the  Indian,  the  misery  was  physical 
torture  as  in  the  Inferno  of  Dante.  When  spir- 
itual ideas  arrived  they  could  be  effectively  pre- 
sented to  the  mind  of  the  people  only  through  the 
mythology  of  the  popular  belief.  Hence  the  Pla- 
tonic myth,  and  the  Parable  of  Jesus.  The  great 
Judgment  Parable  of  Jesus  ^  is  made  and  used  to 
communicate  spiritual  conceptions  of  man's  life 
here  and  hereafter;  the  fate  of  that  Parable  at  the 
hands  of  interpreters  shows  how  slow  the  human 
mind  is  to  rise  to  the  vision  of  the  Eternal  reality 
through  the  temporal  symbol.  Jesus'  words  to 
the  penitent  thief  deliver  the  idea  of  the  future 
and  the  ideal  of  life  in  the  future,  from  all  but  the 
barest  sensuous  forms :  Today  shalt  thou  be  with 
me  in  Paradise. ^  Here  we  have  the  idea  that 
heaven  and  hell  are  in  essence,  opposite  states 
»  Matt.  25.  2  Luke  23:  43. 


MAN  AND   THE  MORAL  IDEAL  179 

of  mind,  within  the  compass  of  the   Infinite 
mind. 

"The  mind  is  its  own  place  and  in  itself 
Can  make  a  Heav'n  of  Hell,  a  Hell  of  Heav'n." 

Here  again  in  following  the  ideal  issues  of  life,  the 
ideal  is  subject  to  many  changes;  yet  it  is  still 
true  to  say  of  it  —  "I  change,  but  I  cannot  die." 
There  is  a  Hebrew  lyric  of  exquisite  beauty, 
concerned  simply  with  the  return  of  the  exiles 
from  Babylon  across  the  seven  hundred  inter- 
vening miles  of  desert  to  their  own  beautiful  and 
forever  hallowed  land.  That  song  is  a  purely 
temporal  song,  filled  though  it  be  with  faith,  but 
it  has  become  the  symbol  of  the  return  of  the 
individual  soul  to  God,  the  return  of  society  to 
the  divine  life,  the  return  of  humanity.  Here  it  is 
as  it  has  sung  its  way  in  English  for  three  hun- 
dred years: 

"The  wilderness,  and  the  solitary  place,  shall  be 
glad  for  them;  and  the  desert  shall  rejoice,  and  blossom 
as  the  rose. 

"It  shall  blossom  abundantly,  and  rejoice  even  with 
joy  and  singing;  the  glory  of  Lebanon  shall  be  given 
unto  it,  the  excellency  of  Carmel  and  Sharon;  they 
shall  see  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  and  the  excellency  of 
our  God. 

"Strengthen  ye  the  weak  hands,  and  confirm  the 
feeble  knees. 

"Say  to  them  that  are  of  a  fearful  heart,  Be  strong, 
fear  not;  behold,  your  God  will  come  with  vengeance. 


180     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

even  God  with  a  recompense;  he  will  come  and  save 
you. 

"Then  the  eyes  of  the  blind  shall  be  opened;  and  the 
ears  of  the  deaf  shall  be  unstopped: 

"Then  shall  the  lame  man  leap  as  an  hart,  and  the 
tongue  of  the  dumb  sing:  for,  in  the  wilderness  shall 
waters  break  out,  and  streams  in  the  desert. 

"And  the  parched  ground  shall  become  a  pool,  and 
the  thirsty  land  springs  of  water:  in  the  habitation  of 
jackals,  where  each  lay,  shall  be  grass,  with  reeds  and 
rushes. 

"And  an  highway  shall  be  there,  and  a  way,  and  it 
shall  be  called.  The  way  of  holiness;  tlie  unclean  shall 
not  pass  over  it;  but  it  shall  be  for  those:  the  way- 
faring men,  though  fools,  shall  not  err  therein. 

"No  lion  shall  be  there,  nor  any  ravenous  beast 
shall  go  up  thereon,  it  shall  not  be  found  there:  but  the 
redeemed  shall  walk  there. 

"And  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord  shall  return,  and 
come  to  Zion  with  songs,  and  everlasting  joy  upon 
their  heads:  they  shall  obtain  joy  and  gladness,  and 
sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee  away." 

That  return  was  never  accomplished;  on  the 
temporal  level  it  was  a  defeated  ideal.  Those 
who  were  carried  into  exile  died  in  exile,  most  of 
them;  only  their  children,  and  not  by  any  means 
all  of  them,  returned.  Those  who  did  return,  re- 
turned to  live  in  the  old  home  under  Persian, 
Greek,  and  Roman  rule  successively;  they  were  a 
subject  race  till  the  Temple  was  destroyed  and 
Jerusalem  razed  to  the  ground.  Then  as  a  race 
they  were  dispersed  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
This  lyric  of  the  glorious  return  sounds  like  ce- 


MAN  AND  THE  MORAL  IDEAL         181 

lestial  mockery  or  a  sweet  chant  in  a  lucid  mo- 
ment, from  an  incurable  inmate  of  an  insane 
asylum. 

What  has  happened?  This  exquisite  lyric  of 
the  return  of  an  exiled  race  to  its  own  dear  coun- 
try has  become  the  symbol  of  the  return  of  man's 
spirit  from  the  life  of  sense  to  the  life  in  God,  from 
the  exile  in  time  to  the  home  of  the  soul  and  the 
race  of  souls  in  eternity.  Men  have  said.  Time  is 
our  pathway;  the  years  are  the  milestones;  some 
have  passed  but  few  of  them,  many  have  passed 
many.  We  are  trudging  on  together,  in  the 
morning,  under  the  heat  of  noon,  in  the  quiet  of 
the  evening,  over  level  paths,  perhaps  up  steep 
mountain  sides,  trudging  on  together,  through 
clear,  fine  weather  or  through  storm  and  gloom. 
How  shall  we  go?  Dumb,  inarticulate,  with  no 
sense  of  the  epic  dignity  of  our  pilgrimage?  Shall 
we  go  with  a  song  in  our  heart,  cheering  one  an- 
other as  we  go,  setting  forth  life's  meaning  to  one 
another  as  we  bear  the  burden  and  face  the  hard- 
ships of  the  way?  The  Hebrew  lyric  has  become  a 
"Road  Melody  "  in  the  onward  march  of  a  spir- 
itual humanity.  The  defeated  ideal  retreats  to 
rise  to  a  new  level  and  to  wield  its  undying  fas- 
cination there. 

Here  is  the  mystery  of  the  moral  ideal.  In  one 
aspect  it  is  only  the  image  of  unattained  good,  in 
the  imagination  of  man.  It  seems  at  one  time  the 


182     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

vaguest,  most  fugitive,  most  uncertain  notion  in 
the  world,  —  a  mere  dream  of  a  higher  soul  in  a 
better  world.  Again,  and  in  retrospect  of  all  the 
aspiring  and  moving  centuries,  it  appears  the  one 
deathless  force  in  the  dying  world  of  human 
beings.  This  image  of  good  in  the  mind  of  man, 
the  motive  force  of  society  when  purified  by  in- 
sight, exalted  by  wisdom,  and  widened  by  experi- 
ence to  the  compass  of  the  whole  higher  need  of 
the  soul,  is  nothing  less,  nothing  other  than  the 
human  version  of  the  Will  of  God  for  mankind. 

II 

Our  human  world  is  reducible  to  four  great 
orders  of  experience.  There  is  first  of  all  the  sys- 
tem of  relations  in  which  we  live.  As  human  be- 
ings we  live  in  the  relations  of  husband  and  wife, 
parents  and  children,  friends,  fellow-workers, 
fellow-citizens,  fellowmen  and  in  the  august  re- 
lation to  the  Infinite  and  Eternal.  This  order  of 
experience  is  fundamental;  it  is  like  the  keel  of 
the  ship  from  which  the  ribs  are  sprung;  abolish  it 
and  you  make  human  life  impossible.  Secondly, 
there  are  the  ideals  that  rise  out  of  these  great 
human  relations  as  their  meaning;  this  meaning 
is  perceived  by  moral  insight  and  later  it  is  re- 
flected in  the  gorgeous  colors  of  the  moral  imagi- 
nation. In  the  third  place  these  ideals  that  thus 
rise  out  of  the  generic  human  relations  are  seen  to 


MAN  AND   THE  MORAL  IDEAL  183 

be  and  felt  to  be  our  obligations.  We  are  in  duty- 
bound  to  make  these  ideal  meanings  the  creative 
forces  in  our  life  and  in  the  life  of  the  world. 
Fourthly,  there  is  our  obedience,  the  homage  of 
the  consenting  will,  the  devotion  of  the  power  in 
man  that  brings  things  to  pass,  that  turns  ideal 
into  actual  and  thus  transfigures  the  relations 
from  which  this  high  meaning  first  drew  its  exist- 
ence. 

It  appears  from  this  exposition  that  the  moral 
ideal  is  the  second  order  of  experience  in  our  hu- 
man world.  Again  let  it  be  said  that  our  ideals 
are  the  meanings,  the  system  of  meanings  of  the 
great  relationships  in  which  we  live.  They  are 
first  beheld  in  the  white  light  of  moral  insight; 
they  are  later  presented  in  the  beauty  and  fire  of 
the  moral  imagination;  they  thus  become  at  once 
the  source  of  the  deepest  wisdom  and  the  founda- 
tion of  the  clear  and  radiant  poetry  of  man's  life. 

Human  nature  is  great  with  immanent  mind. 
In  the  method  and  struggle  of  experience  nature 
is  earnestly  trying  to  get  its  secret  law  and  mean- 
ing uttered.  This  nature  of  ours  is  deeper  than 
conscious  mind,  yet  it  cannot  thrive  without  the 
aid  of  conscious  mind.  Our  being,  in  the  process 
of  experience,  is  not  unlike  a  deaf  mute.  It  is 
charged  with  intelligence  yet  cannot  get  that  in- 
telligence expressed;  it  is  aware  of  its  own  struc- 
ture and  law  and  still  is  unable  to  deliver  its  bur- 


184     ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

den  to  the  free  conscious  mind.  How  to  impart 
what  it  knows  to  be  its  ultimate  meaning  is  its 
problem;  a  problem  solved  only  in  part,  in  the 
happiest  endeavor,  —  in  many  cases  it  remains 
unsolved.  Like  our  deaf  mute,  who  succeeds  now 
and  then,  after  mastering  a  system  of  signs,  by 
persistent  effort,  ingenious  device,  resourceful- 
ness and  hope,  in  uttering  something  of  the  deep 
content  of  his  soul,  though  never  more  than  a 
fraction  of  it,  and  who  must  often  go  as  if  his 
heart  were  empty,  because  of  the  unsympathetic 
and  impotent  mind  by  which  he  is  surrounded, 
our  human  nature  is  able  only  here  and  there, 
after  great  effort  and  much  suffering  to  get  itself 
understood  in  part,  while  in  general  the  conscious 
intelligence  by  which  it  is  encompassed  remains 
dead  to  the  mighty  secret  that  longs  to  make 
itself  known.  The  true  spirit  in  which  to  ap- 
proach our  humanity  with  its  immanent  mind, 
seeking  earnestly  and  too  often  vainly  to  deliver 
the  burden  of  the  good  to  the  conscious,  personal 
mind,  is  given  in  Wordsworth's  great  line,  "We 
feel  that  we  are  greater  than  we  know." 

From  another  angle  of  vision  it  may  be  said 
that  in  the  total  intellectual  life  of  the  race  the 
true  order  would  seem  to  be  reality,  feeling,  rea- 
son. The  infinite  thing  is  the  universal  reality. 
We  touch  this  reality  first  of  all  in  feeling.  The 
feeling  is  indeed  penetrated  with  intelligence; 


MAN  AND   THE  MORAL  IDEAL  185 

still  it  remains  feeling.  It  rises  in  the  forms  of 
interest,  curiosity,  surprise,  desire,  expectation, 
confidence,  and  the  spirit  of  prophecy.  From  this 
psychic  confusion  of  great  riches,  issue  clear  con- 
ceptions, valid  insight,  sure  knowledge.  Reason 
is  the  latest  born  in  the  psychic  family,  and  it 
remains  forever  overshadowed  in  life  by  its  elder 
brothers  —  feeling,  and  the  reality  of  which  feel- 
ing is  the  witness. 

That  we  are  in  a  real  universe  is  an  assumption 
upon  which  we  live;  that  we  feel  this  real  uni- 
verse before  we  are  able  to  think  it,  is  an  obvious 
fact  in  our  experience;  that  we  think,  even  at  our 
best,  not  only  something  immeasurably  smaller 
than  the  total  reality,  but  also  something  that  is 
nothing  more  than  a  fraction  of  the  content  of 
feeling,  is  a  statement  too  plain  to  call  for  argu- 
ment about  it.  When  one  sees  a  child  playing  on 
the  lawn  in  front  of  its  home  in  the  sunshine,  as 
the  days  lengthen  into  its  second  summer  in  the 
world,  three  things  are  clear.  There  is  the  en- 
folding sunshine;  there  is  the  sense  of  life  height- 
ened by  the  sunshine;  there  is  some  dim  con- 
sciousness of  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect 
between  the  sunshine  and  the  experience  of  ex- 
hilaration. We  have  here,  one  may  presume,  a 
hint  of  man's  life  as  a  spiritual  being.  There  is 
the  divine  reality;  there  is  its  effect  upon  feeling; 
there  is  the  account  of  the  connection  between 


186      ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

these  two.  The  contention  is  that  the  divine 
environment  is  the  ultimate  and  infinite  wonder; 
close  to  this  stands  feeling  truly  inexhaustible  in 
its  content;  last  of  all  comes  reason,  inevitable 
in  the  mature  human  being,  and  inevitably  be- 
hind in  its  work. 

Originality  would  seem  to  begin  in  feeling. 
Copernicus  has  a  feeling  that  the  Ptolemaic  sys- 
tem is  all  wrong;  Newton  that  there  must  be 
some  bond  of  union  among  all  worlds;  Berkeley 
that  Locke's  idea  of  matter  is  an  absurdity;  Kant 
that  a  true  psychology  should  consider  the  action 
of  the  mind  upon  its  object  no  less  than  the  ac- 
tion of  the  object  upon  the  mind;  Darwin  that 
life  must  have  a  history,  that  it  must  be  an 
ascent.  Feeling  is  the  first  sign  of  genius;  to  feel- 
ing in  men  of  great  genius  we  are  indebted  for 
the  beginnings  of  the  achievements  that  have 
made  their  names  illustrious.  The  feeling  for 
nature  has  given  us  our  greatest  scientists;  the 
feeling  for  man  our  supreme  poets;  the  feeling 
for  God  'several  of  our  weightiest  philosophers 
and  all  our  highest  prophets. 

When  Jonathan  Edwards  contended  that  genu- 
ine religion  consists  largely  in  the  affections,  he 
did  not  mean  to  confine  religion  to  a  mere  sub- 
jective circle.  For  him,  as  for  every  other  wise 
man,  the  heart  is  not  a  possession  out  of  all  rela- 
tion to  universal  Being;  it  is  the  organ  of  closest 


MAN  AND   THE  MOBAL  IDEAL  187 

contact  with  universal  Being;  of  intuitive  inter- 
course with  it  or  him;  of  response  to  immediate 
impact;  it  is  the  organ  of  a  storehouse  of  intima- 
tions, appeals,  and  gifts.  The  subtlest  forms  of 
mind  work  here,  and  they  bring  into  the  spirit  of 
man  experiences,  assurances,  and  hopes  of  a 
transcendent  character.  From  this  world  of  re- 
ligious feeling,  reason  elaborates  its  world  of 
meanings,  concepts,  beliefs;  still  the  primary 
world  of  religious  feeling  remains  unsearchable  in 
its  richness,  unfathomable  in  its  depth. 

In  pressing  nature  for  its  secret,  we  are  work- 
ing to  gain  insight  into  the  sort  of  being  we  men 
are.  God  is  with  us,  God  is  within  us,  and  we  can 
understand  ourselves  only  as  we  attain  some  idea 
of  his  purpose  in  the  orders  of  our  life.  When  the 
secret  of  our  being  becomes  insight,  and  when  the 
insight  gets  into  the  imagination,  we  have  made 
great  attainments.  The  moral  life  is  then  no 
longer  a  mere  affair  of  human  convention;  it  is 
seen  to  be  what  Plato  and  Aristotle  and  the  Sto- 
ics saw  it  to  be,  what  Butler  and  Kant  held  it  to 
be,  a  life  ordained  by  nature.  Then,  too,  religion 
is  no  longer  a  blind  ritual,  an  irrational  belief,  or 
the  futile  attempt  to  fill  the  infinite  void  with 
Intelligence,  the  shadow  of  the  soul  of  man  pro- 
jected into  immensity,  but  insight  into  the  heart 
of  an  ever-present  Reality.  Here  I  present,  for 
their  illuminating  power,  two  prophets  of  the 


188     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEBY 

moral  ideal,  one  from  the  first  and  the  other  from 
the  nineteenth  century  of  the  Christian  era,  — 
Paul  the  Apostle  to  the  nations,  and  the  Enghsh 
Poet  Tennyson. 


Ill 

Paul  was,  of  course  excluding  from  all  compari- 
son his  Master,  the  greatest  moral  idealist  of  the 
century  to  which  he  belonged.  Near  the  close  of 
his  life,  when  old  and  dying,  he  made  over  as  his 
solemn  bequest  to  an  elect  youth  of  that  genera- 
tion the  glorious  Christian  ideal  that  he  had  fol- 
lowed with  passionate  joy  from  manhood.  This 
aged  IdeaHst  said, "  I  have  kept  the  faith."  Fidel- 
ity to  the  ideal  was  the  central,  shining  signifi- 
cance of  his  career  in  this  wild  mysterious  world. 

The  various  stages  in  the  experience  thus  gath- 
ered into  the  expression  of  enduring  fidelity  to 
the  ideal  may  be  ascertained  from  other  utter- 
ances of  this  wonderful  man.  There  came  to 
Paul  in  early  manhood  what  he  called  the  "heav- 
enly vision."  It  found  him  at  sunrise  sleeping, 
and  it  awoke  him;  it  came  as  the  mighty  wizard, 
it  made  new  his  whole  personal  life,  his  view  of 
the  world  of  men  everywhere;  it  made  new  his 
thought  of  the  universe  in  which  he  lived,  and  his 
feeling  toward  it.  That  was  the  first  state:  it  was 
the  dawn  of  a  new  day,  in  whose  light  every- 
thing was  changed. 


MAN  AND   THE  MOBAL  IDEAL  189 

The  second  stage  records  the  conflict  that  fol- 
lowed between  the  new  life  and  the  old,  the  new 
man  and  the  old,  the  ideal  and  the  actual,  the 
heavenly  spirit  and  the  beast  in  him.  That  con- 
flict is  recorded  with  monumental  power  in  the 
seventh  chapter  of  his  letter  to  the  Romans.  All 
the  serious  world  knows  of  that  tremendous 
conflict,  all  the  serious  minds  in  all  these  genera- 
tions have  been  familiar  with  the  cry  of  despair 
that  came  out  of  the  defeated  idealist's  heart,  — 
**0  wretched  man  that  I  am,  who  shall  deliver 
me  from  the  body  of  this  death?"  And  all  souls 
longing  for  victory  in  all  the  serious  ages,  them- 
selves serious,  have  taken  comfort  from  the 
further  experience;  he  deepened  in  defeat  his  in- 
sufficient ideal  in  the  life  and  power  of  Jesus  till 
that  augmented  and  glorified  ideal  came  back  to 
subdue  his  passions  and  rule  his  life.  Then  he  was 
able  to  answer  his  own  deepest  question.  His 
victorious  shout  was,  "Thanks  be  to  God  who 
giveth  us  the  victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ." 

The  next  state  in  Paul's  experience  brought 
him  to  the  discovery  that  every  human  being  the 
world  over  was  a  candidate  for  the  life  under  the 
light  of  the  Christian  ideal.  He  went  forth  at 
once  with  one  of  the  grandest  names  ever  given 
to  a  mortal  man;  he  stepped  into  the  arena  of  life 
as  the  apostle  of  the  Christian  ideal  to  the  na- 


190      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

tions,  a  world-servant  of  the  world-ideal  of  the 
Lord  Jesus.  Then  came  the  sense  that  his  ideal 
was  not  something  abstract,  floating  in  the  air, 
dependent  for  its  existence  upon  vivid  imagina- 
tion and  excited  feeling;  that  it  had  its  home,  its 
authentic  home,  as  far  as  this  world  is  concerned, 
in  the  soul  of  Jesus.  He  gave  it  historic  reality 
through  the  truth,  the  integrity,  the  beauty  and 
the  power  of  his  life;  he  launched  it  from  his  hu- 
manity as  a  genuine  force,  no  longer  in  the  imag- 
ination of  men  merely,  but  as  the  meaning  of 
man's  world  delivered  from  his  own  spirit. 

Jesus  died  and  passed  away.  The  expectation 
of  the  church  of  the  first  century  that  he  would 
speedily  return  in  the  flesh  and  consummate  his 
kingdom  was  disappointed,  and  this  mistaken 
thought  about  the  return  of  Jesus  and  the  disap- 
pointment that  followed  reduced  the  ideal  to  a 
wintry  glimmer.  Here  was  a  new  and  a  deeper 
crisis  in  the  life  of  Paul  and  his  fellow-Christians. 
The  first  battle  of  Paul  after  he  became  a  Chris- 
tian idealist  was  with  the  forces  and  courses  of 
the  brute  in  him.  The  foe  that  he  met  later  in 
life  was  subtler,  deadlier  far.  The  suspicion 
haunted  him  that  after  all  the  ideal  was  only  a 
dream,  the  invention  of  poetic  emotion,  the  crea- 
tion of  enthusiasm,  the  play  of  pale  ineffectual 
moonlight  upon  the  regions  of  eternal  ice;  it  was 
a  meteor  shot  into  a  world  that  was  amazed  by  it 


MAN  AND   THE  MORAL  IDEAL  191 

for  a  moment,  a  world,  however,  in  which  it  could 
not  live.  The  suspicion  haunted  Paul  that  per- 
haps the  Christian  ideal  must  be  surrendered  face 
to  face  with  the  grinding,  mechanical,  brute  order 
of  existence,  that  order  which  digs  the  grave  alike 
for  saint  and  sinner,  Jesus  and  Judas. 

What  saved  Paul  here  was  the  very  same  thing 
that  saved  him  in  his  earlier  contest.  Profounder 
retreat  upon  the  ideal;  that  was  his  salvation. 
His  great  cry  here  rings  down  the  ages,  "Even 
though  we  have  known  Christ  after  the  flesh,  yet 
now  know  we  him  so  no  more."  The  evangelical 
history  is  divinely  beautiful,  inexpressively  pre- 
cious; nevertheless  the  world  of  spirit  is  contem- 
poraneous; God  is  the  contemporary  Deity;  the 
kingdom  of  souls  is  a  reality  in  its  own  name  and 
right,  and  we  have  today  immediate  access  to  this 
Reality  and  may  feel  its  pulses  and  powers  in  our 
heart  of  hearts.  Thus  the  ideal  renewed  itself 
out  of  the  ever-present  kingdom  of  the  spirit;  the 
spirit  helpeth  our  infirmities.  Again  the  ideal 
thus  restored  and  greatened  overflowed  the  world 
and  claimed  all  men,  all  time  and  all  kingdoms  as 
its  own.  In  the  light  of  this  world-ideal  Paul  saw 
all  souls  redeemed  in  Christ,  and  Christ  and  all 
souls  taken  up  into  the  life  of  God,  made  con- 
scious persons,  permanent  persons,  wholly  trans- 
figured persons  there  and  God  himself  become 
All  in  All. 


192      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

From  this  bare  outline  of  the  experience  of  the 
greatest  moral  idealist  of  his  age,  and  one  of  the 
greatest  of  all  the  ages,  we  turn  to  Tennyson.  He 
may  surely  represent  the  moral  idealist  of  the 
century  to  which  he  belonged.  The  poet  opens 
his  heart  in  "Merlin  and  the  Gleam";  he  opens, 
too,  the  religious  soul  of  his  generation. 

We  cannot  but  observe  the  striking  resem- 
blances in  the  experience  of  the  Apostle  and  the 
Poet.  In  grand  outline  the  one  adventure  an- 
swers to  the  other.  There  is  Merlin  the  dying 
Idealist;  he  looks  upon  an  elect  youth  as  Paul  had 
done.  The  youth  is  the  Mariner;  he  is  fascinated 
by  the  gray  Magician,  the  sea,  symbol  of  the 
boundless,  mysterious  stretch  of  life,  with  all  its 
appeal  to  adventure  and  wonder.  The  Idealist, 
old  and  dying,  has  a  romance  to  relate,  the  deep 
eternal  romance  of  the  morally  awakened  spirit. 
He  recalls  that  "the  Gleam'*  found  him  at  sun- 
rise sleeping,  woke  him,  taught  him  magic. 

"Great  the  Master 
And  sweet  the  Magic." 

His  view  of  himself  was  changed;  the  world  of 
men  and  the  stern  universe  to  which  he  belonged 
now  appeared  in  light  and  beauty,  purified  in  the 
splendors  of  the  all-hallowing  fire.  Then  came  the 
collision  between  the  actual  and  the  ideal,  as  in 
the  case  of  Paul;  the  beast  of  a  barbarous  society 


MAN  AND   THE  MORAL  IDEAL  193 

threatened  and  the  demon  in  his  own  nature 
vexed  him.  For  a  moment  it  seemed  that  the 
glorious  possession  must  perish.  In  the  heart  of 
his  distress  the  great  whisper  came,  "Follow  the 
Gleam."  As  he  followed  it,  as  he  honored  it  with 
the  fidelity  of  his  soul,  "the  Gleam"  brightened 
till  it  overflowed  the  world.  In  its  light  Merlin 
now  saw  that  not  only  favored  men  and  women 
here  and  there  but  also  all  human  beings,  in  virtue 
of  their  humanity,  were  capable  of  living  this 
exalted  life.  Merlin  now  sees  this  spell  upon  the 
entire  world  of  men  running 

"From  the  rough  ruddy  faces 
Of  lowly  labor 


To  the  city  and  palace 
Of  Arthur  the  King." 

At  last "  the  Gleam  "  found  a  witness  of  its  reality 
in  the  perfect  man. 

"At  last  on  the  forehead 
Of  Arthur  the  blameless 
Rested  the  Gleam." 

Arthur,  blameless  Arthur  belonged  in  part  to 
the  temporal  order;  he  died  and  vanished  from 
the  world.  He  left  no  successor;  no  perfect  soul 
now  remained  to  attest  the  authentic  truth  of 
"the  Gleam."  In  consequence  the  world  grew 
cold;  "the  Gleam"  sank  to  a  wintry  glimmer;  the 
hand  of  ice  and  death  was  upon  it.    Still  the 


194     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

Divine  whisper  came,  "Follow  the  Gleam."  Fi- 
deHty  was  rewarded;  "the  Gleam"  grew  till  the 
world,  the  universe  lay  transfigured  in  its  light, 
till  age,  infirmity,  woe,  loss  and  death  were  dis- 
covered to  be  sources  of  new  and  higher  being. 
Thus  Merlin,  the  dying  Idealist,  in  recounting 
his  mighty  adventure  sings, 

"And  so  to  the  land's 
Last  limit  I  came,  — 
And  can  no  longer. 
But  die  rejoicing, 
For  through  the  Magic 
Of  Him  the  Mighty, 
Who  taught  me  in  childhood. 
There  on  the  border 
Of  boundless  Ocean, 
And  all  but  in  Heaven 
Hovers  the  Gleam." 

One  more  call  from  the  Idealist  at  the  close  of 
the  vast  earthly  adventure  to  the  Idealist  who  is 
about  to  begin  his  perilous  experiment  —  the 
call  as  impressive  in  its  truth  and  solemn  beauty 
as  any  words  could  well  be  —  and  the  great  re- 
cital ends.  After  this  analysis,  we  may  perhaps 
read  this  masterpiece  with  deeper  insight  and 
keener  appreciation.   Let  us  try: 

"O  young  Mariner, 
You  from  the  haven 
Under  the  sea-cliff, 
You  that  are  watching 
The  gray  Magician 


MAN  AND   THE  MORAL  IDEAL  195 

With  eyes  of  wonder, 

I  am  Merlin, 

And  I  am  dying, 

I  am  Merlin 

Who  follow  the  Gleam. 

"Mighty  the  Wizard 
Who  found  me  at  sunrise 
Sleeping,  and  woke  me 
And  learn'd  me  Magic! 
Great  the  Master, 
And  sweet  the  Magic, 
When  over  the  valley, 
In  early  summers. 
Over  the  mountain. 
On  human  faces, 
And  all  around  me. 
Moving  to  melody. 
Floated  the  Gleam. 

'Once  at  the  croak  of  a  Raven  who  crest  it 
A  barbarous  people 
Blind  to  the  magic 
And  deaf  to  the  melody, 
Snarl'd  at  and  cursed  me. 
A  demon  vext  me. 
The  light  retreated. 
The  landskip  darkened. 
The  melody  deaden'd. 
The  Master  whisper'd 
'Follow  the  Gleam.* 

"Then  to  the  melody. 
Over  a  wilderness 
Gliding  and  glancing  at 
Elf  of  the  woodland. 
Gnome  of  the  cavern. 


196      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEBY 

Griffin  and  Giant, 

And  dancing  of  Fairies 

In  desolate  hollows, 

And  wraiths  of  the  mountain, 

And  rolling  of  dragons 

By  warble  of  water. 

Or  cataract  music 

Of  falling  torrents. 

Flitted  the  Gleam. 

"Down  from  the  mountain 
And  over  the  level, 
And  streaming  and  shining  on 
Silent  river. 
Silvery  willow. 
Pasture  and  plowland. 
Innocent  maidens. 
Garrulous  children. 
Homestead  and  harvest. 
Reaper  and  gleaner. 
And  rough-ruddy  faces 
Of  lowly  labor, 
Slided  the  Gleam  — 

"Then,  with  a  melody 
Stronger  and  statelier. 
Led  me  at  length 
To  the  city  and  palace 
Of  Arthur  the  King; 
Touch'd  at  the  golden 
Cross  of  the  churches, 
Flash'd  on  the  tournament, 
Flicker'd  and  bicker'd 
From  helmet  to  helmet, 
And  last  on  the  forehead 
Of  Arthur  the  blameless 
Rested  the  Gleam. 


MAN  AND  THE  MORAL  IDEAL  197 

"Clouds  and  darkness 

Closed  upon  Camelot; 

Arthur  had  vanish'd 

I  knew  not  whither, 

The  king  who  loved  me. 

And  cannot  die; 

For  out  of  the  darkness 

Silent  and  slowly 
The  Gleam,  that  had  waned  to  a  wintry  glimmer 

On  icy  fallow 

And  faded  forest. 

Drew  to  the  valley 

Named  of  the  shadow. 

And  slowly  brightening 

Out  of  the  glimmer, 
And  slowly  moving  again  to  a  melody 

Yearningly  tender. 

Fell  on  the  shadow, 

No  longer  a  shadow. 

But  clothed  with  the  Gleam. 

**And  broader  and  brighter 
The  Gleam  flying  onward. 
Wed  to  the  melody. 
Sang  thro'  the  world; 
And  slower  and  fainter. 
Old  and  weary. 
But  eager  to  follow, 
I  saw,  whenever 
In  passing  it  glanced  upon 
Hamlet  or  city, 
That  under  the  Crosses 
The  dead  man's  garden. 
The  mortal  hillock. 
Would  break  into  blossom; 
And  so  to  the  land's 
Last  limit  I  came  — 


198      ASPECTS   OF  TME  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

And  can  no  longer. 

But  die  rejoicing, 

For  thro'  the  Magic 

Of  Him  the  Mighty, 

Who  taught  me  in  childhood. 

There  on  the  border 

Of  boundless  Ocean, 

And  all  but  in  Heaven 

Hovers  the  Gleam. 

"Not  of  the  sunlight, 
Not  of  the  moonlight, 
Not  of  the  starlight! 
O  young  Mariner, 
Down  k)  the  haven. 
Call  your  companions, 
Launch  your  vessel 
And  crowd  your  canvas. 
And,  ere  it  vanishes 
Over  the  margin. 
After  it,  follow  it, 
Follow  the  Gleam." 


IV 

We  are  now  ready,  I  hope,  for  these  three  con- 
clusions. In  the  first  place,  here,  in  the  truth  of  the 
ideal,  is  the  beginning  of  our  humanity.  The 
beast  lives  in  relations,  but  does  not  know  it;  the 
beast  is  foodgetter,  parent,  offspring,  neighbor; 
the  beast  is  in  relation  to  the  universe  but  does 
not  know  it.  These  relations  have  no  ideal  mean- 
ings for  the  beast,  therefore  it  is  and  therefore  it 
must  remain  a  beast.  And  while  man  is  unvisited 


MAN  AND   THE  MORAL  IDEAL  199 

by  the  ideal  he  is  a  beast;  he  is  foodgetter,  parent, 
child,  neighbor;  he  is  in  relation  to  the  universe; 
but  these  relations  yield  no  ideal  meanings  and 
he  is  an  animal  and  not  yet  a  man;  so  far  he  is 
only  a  "candidate  for  humanity."  When  as  the 
planets  after  sundown  swim  up  out  of  the  gloom 
of  the  evening  and  climb  the  dark  stairway  of 
night  and  gather,  a  great  cluster  overhead,  and 
pour  down  their  all-hallowing  illumination  upon 
the  earth,  out  of  these  human  relations  ideals  rise 
and  glow  and  burn  and  assemble  in  the  firma- 
ment of  the  soul  and  chant,  in  light  and  fire,  the 
refrain:  "This  is  the  meaning  of  your  life";  then 
man  is  born;  then  he  is  born  as  lover,  as  parent, 
as  brother,  as  friend,  as  citizen,  as  human  being. 
The  advent  of  the  ideal  is  the  birth  of  humanity. 
Here  we  see  the  beginning  of  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ.  He  is  the  Sovereign  Idealist  in  time. 
He  stood  in  relations  such  as  those  in  which  we 
live,  and  out  of  these  relations  came  all-glorious 
meanings  regarding  his  own  soul,  regarding  hu- 
man beings  everywhere,  regarding  the  Soul  of 
God.  These  meanings  were  his  ideals;  he  kept 
them;  he  put  them  back  into  life  through  obedi- 
ence, and  shot  them  into  th©  world  through  his 
words,  his  deeds  and  his  whole  career.  To  know 
Jesus  is  simply  to  know  the  Supreme  Interpreter 
of  life's  meaning,  to  join  him,  in  his  sovereign 
moral  idealism. 


200     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEBY 

Here  is  the  beginning  of  all  faith  in  God.  God 
is  the  Eternal  Moral  Idealist,  whose  character  of 
Infinite  worth  is  won  through  his  will,  is  main- 
tained through  his  will;  in  him  ideal  and  actual 
are  eternally  one.  That  gives  him  significance  for 
all  finite  worlds,  and  makes  him  the  standard 
character  for  his  poor  children  in  time  struggling 
after  higher  things. 

Then,  too,  we  think  of  God  with  a  programme 
in  this  world,  —  what  Tennyson  calls  "the  far 
off  divine  event";  we  think  of  God  as  driving  the 
interests  of  this  finite  world  through  the  courses 
of  time,  through  all  the  centuries  and  the  ages 
toward  that  "far  off  divine  event"  that  he  may 
consummate  the  human  world  that  he  has  made. 
To  believe  in  God  is  to  join  him  in  that  movement 
with  head  and  heart  and  will,  with  the  energies  of 
life  and  the  vision  of  faith. 

How  can  God  be  known?  One  answer  to  this 
question  is  clear  and  sure.  Here  is  a  ship  at  sea, 
plunging  into  the  night  homeward  bound.  Wild 
waves  beat  upon  her,  the  tumultuous  deep  is  un- 
der her,  the  black  starless  night  is  over  her.  What 
a  universe  of  blackness  and  terror  that  is  for  the 
lonely  ship.  One  thing  is  clear;  she  is  making 
headway;  one  thing  she  cannot  doubt,  the  driving 
power  of  her  life.  She  feels  the  beat  of  her  en- 
gines in  every  bolt  and  bar  from  stem  to  stern. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  about  the  reality  of  the 


MAN  AND  THE  MORAL  IDEAL  201 

power  that  is  driving  her  through  the  wild  night 
on  toward  the  distant  haven  of  peace.  In  this  way- 
man  becomes  sure  of  God.  In  his  devotion  to  the 
ideal  he  opens  his  soul  to  the  Soul  of  the  universe; 
sincerity  deepens,  power  increases,  freedom  ar- 
rives; the  man  prevails  over  the  brute.  Some 
One  is  driving  his  soul  through  this  troubled  and 
tremendous  sea  of  time  on  toward  the  far  off 
quiet  harbor.  The  idealist  knows  God  as  the 
driving  power  of  his  being. 

At  the  end  PauFs  words  were,  "  I  have  kept  the 
faith.'*  What  did  he  mean.?  That  you  should 
have  a  church,  that  you  should  love  it  and  that 
you  should  now  and  then  attend  its  services?  He 
meant  that  doubtless  and  more.  That  you  should 
belong  to  the  one  true  unchanging  Church?  He 
did  not  mean  that,  for  no  such  church  was  in  ex- 
istence when  Paul  wrote.  All  the  churches  were 
unstable  and  no  one  knew  what  they  were  going 
to  be.  Did  Paul  mean  by  his  final  words  a  system 
of  belief,  the  historical  theology  of  the  Christian 
Church?  That  had  not  yet  come  into  existence; 
he  could  not,  therefore,  have  meant  that.  Did  he 
mean  an  order  of  ideas?  That  surely  but  also 
something  infinitely  deeper.  The  apostle  meant 
that  the  covenant  that  he  had  made  with  human 
souls  through  his  entire  life  as  a  Christian,  the 
covenant  that  he  had  made  with  the  Eternal  God, 
he  had  clung  to,  confessed  and  kept  inviolate. 


202     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

That  is  the  faith  worth  keeping.  To  keep  the 
faith  in  any  great  sense  is  to  keep  faith  with  the 
souls  in  one's  home,  to  keep  the  faith  as  lover, 
husband,  wife,  friend,  workman,  employer  of 
workmen,  citizen,  human  being;  it  is  to  keep 
one's  vow  and  covenant  with  the  soul  of  God. 

Here  is  a  human  soul  in  relation  to  your  soul, 
to  whom  you  have  vowed,  in  one  way  or  another, 
to  be  true.  That  vow  is  faith  in  its  innermost 
circle  of  sanctity.  One  must  call  upon  one's  self 
to  regard  the  church  as  a  servant,  to  look  upon 
the  best  order  of  ideas  as  instrumental,  to  seize 
the  solemn,  ultimate  fact  that  Christian  faith  is 
a  vow  made  in  the  presence  of  the  ideal  and  in 
homage  to  it,  a  vow  to  be  true  to  all  souls,  to  be 
true  to  the  soul  of  the  Lord,  to  be  true  to  the  soul 
of  God.  Our  vows,  in  the  light  of  the  Christian 
ideal,  are  the  heart  of  our  religion;  they  are  indeed 
the  sacramental  life  of  our  human  world.  Fidel- 
ity here  is  momentous;  to  keep  the  faith,  in  this 
sense  of  it,  is  to  keep  faith  with  ourselves,  with 
humanity,  with  the  universe,  with  the  Infinite 
Father  of  all. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   REALITY   OF   INSPIRATION 
I 

When  one  asks  for  a  deiSnition  of  inspiration, 
it  is  enough  to  answer  that  it  is  the  mind  of 
man,  common  or  uncommon,  endowed  with  un- 
wonted sensibihty  to  truth,  beauty  and  good- 
ness, through  serious  and  reverential,  perhaps 
awe-struck,  contact  with  the  mind  of  the  In- 
finite. The  inspired  mind  is  mind  quickened  to 
unwonted  sensibihty,  hfted  to  the  full  maximum 
of  its  power.  The  avenues  of  inspiration,  as  we 
shall  see  later,  are  three, — nature,  our  human 
world,  the  Infinite;  and  the  reality  of  inspiration 
in  the  presence  of  nature,  and  of  our  human  world 
goes  far  to  set  in  light  the  reality  of  inspiration  in 
the  presence  of  the  Infinite. 

Plato's  description  of  the  poet  as  one  out  of  his 
head,  as  a  madman,  is  of  course  a  humorous 
description.  It  contains  the  truth,  that  all  men 
would  confess,  that  minds  of  high  sensibility 
pass  over  into  their  object;  their  minds  become 
not  only  objective,  but  also  the  object.  The 
object  takes  possession  of  such  minds  and  utters 
its  meaning  and  spirit  through  the  mind  that  has 
been  lent  to  it.  In  a  way  this  is  undeniably  true 


204     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

of  all  ejffective  intellects,  scientific,  artistic,  philo- 
sophic, religious.  The  scientific  intellect,  in  the 
case  of  a  Copernicus  or  a  Newton,  is  possessed 
by  its  object;  through  this  possession  the  object 
reveals  its  secret.  In  the  case  of  the  artist  of  high 
sensibility  this  is  obviously  true.  A  Beethoven 
passes  into  the  possession  of  the  mystery  of  sound 
and  time,  and  that  mystery  keeps  him  in  its  pos- 
session till  it  has  laid  open  its  heart  in  his  sym- 
phonies. Plato  passes  over  into  the  possession  of 
the  dramatic  movement  of  the  philosophic  mind 
of  Greece.  He  is  occupied  by  that  movement; 
his  mastery  of  it  is  part  of  the  possession.  He  is 
his  own  madman  over  again;  his  mind  is  re-creat- 
ing the  philosophic  drama,  endowing  it  with  the 
charm  of  life  and  free  movement  which  it  had 
when  Socrates  examined  the  thoughts  of  the  older 
and  younger  Athenians  whom  he  met  in  the  Mar- 
ket Place.  Aristotle  is  clearly  in  the  same  hiero- 
phantic  order.  No  mind  in  all  history  is  more 
completely  objective,  more  engrossed  with  its 
objects,  whether  these  objects  be  Logic,  Rhe- 
toric, Poetics,  Ethics,  Politics,  Natural  History, 
or  Metaphysics.  His  genius  impels  him  to  become 
the  thinking  instrument  of  his  object;  his  object 
gets  into  his  whole  mind,  works  upon  it,  utters 
itself  through  it.  In  precisely  the  same  way  the 
prophet  Isaiah  becomes  possessed  of  the  Eternal; 
his  spirit  is  carried  away  by  its  object  and  that 


THE  REALITY  OF  INSPIRATION        205 

Infinite  object  utters  its  message  through  the 
mind  that  has  passed  over  into  its  control. 

This  movement  of  mind  into  pure  objectivity  is 
often  instinctive,  or  the  result  of  habit.  It  is,  in 
many  high  examples,  a  movement  initiated  and 
quickened  by  conscious  effort.  This  happens 
oftenest  when  the  mind  faces  a  great  task.  Men 
then  call  upon  God,  or  the  gods,  for  help.  Noth- 
ing could  be  further  from  the  truth,  or  indeed 
more  contemptible  than  to  treat  the  invocations 
of  the  great  poets,  face  to  face  with  a  vast  and 
vastly  difficult  task,  as  a  mere  rhetorical  flourish. 
These  men  were  believers  in  the  Divine;  they 
believed  that  the  human  mind  works  at  its  surest 
and  best  only  when  in  contact  with  the  Divine. 
Their  appeals  for  help  to  the  gods,  to  a  single  god 
or  goddess,  are  made  in  all  simplicity  and  sin- 
cerity. 

The  Odyssey  opens  with  this  well-known  in- 
vocation: "Speak  to  me.  Muse,  of  the  adventur- 
ous man  who  wandered  long  after  he  had  sacked 
the  sacred  citadel  of  Troy.  Many  the  men  whose 
towns  he  saw,  whose  ways  he  proved;  many  a 
pang  he  bore  in  his  own  breast  at  sea,  struggling 
for  his  life  and  his  men's  safe  return.  Yet  even 
so,  by  all  his  zeal,  he  did  not  save  his  men;  for 
through  their  own  perversity  they  perished  — 
fools !  who  devoured  the  kine  of  the  exalted  Sun. 
Wherefore  he  took  away  the  day  of  their  return. 


206      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

Of  this,  O  goddess,  daughter  of  Zeus,  beginning 
where  thou  wilt,  speak  to  us  also."  ^  The  poet 
here  depends  upon  an  inspiration  that  the  old 
Divines  would  have  called  plenary.   , 

Virgil  speaks  from  the  heart,  in  simple  sincer- 
ity, and  in  accord  with  the  facts  in  his  own  mental 
life,  when  he  sings, 

**0  Muse,  the  causes  tell!  What  sacrilege, 
Or  vengeful  sorrow,  moved  the  heavenly  Queen 
To  thrust  on  dangers  dark  and  endless  toil 
A  man  whose  largest  honor  in  men's  eyes 
Was  serving  Heaven?   Can  gods  such  anger  feel?"  ^ 

Virgil  feels  profoundly  the  dark  tragedy  of  his 
world;  he  feels  himself  unequal  to  the  task  of 
gaining  any,  the  least  glimpse  of  its  inner  mean- 
ing, apart  from  Divine  help. 

Milton  follows,  with  equal  step,  and  with  more 
enlightened  appeal,  his  ancient  epic  predecessors. 

"And  chiefly  thou,  O  Spirit,  that  dost  prefer 
Before  all  temples  th'  upright  heart  and  pure, 
Instruct  me,  for  thou  know'st;  thou  from  the  first 
Wast  present,  and  with  mighty  wings  outspread 
Dove-like,  sat'st  brooding  on  the  vast  abyss. 
And  mad'st  it  pregnant:  what  in  me  is  dark 
Illumine,  what  is  low  raise  and  support; 
That  to  the  height  of  this  great  argument 

1  may  assert  eternal  Providence, 
And  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  men." 

^  The  Odyssey,  book  i.  Translation,  G.  H.  Palmer. 

2  The  ^neid,  book  i.  Translation,  Theodore  Williams. 


THE  BEALITY  OF  INSPIRATION        207 

Such  is  the  highest  Hterary  and  rehgious  tradi- 
tion of  our  human  race.  Face  to  face  with  great 
tasks,  as  well  as  when  face  to  face  with  grave 
crises  in  life,  the  reverent  mind  instinctively 
turns  to  the  Divine  for  light  and  availing 
strength. 

II 

Today  the  inspirability  of  man  in  the  presence 
of  the  Infinite  is  denied  by  some,  doubted  by 
others,  entirely  disregarded  by  many  more.  This 
strange  state  of  mind  has  come  into  existence  in 
our  time,  mainly,  I  believe,  through  the  operation 
of  three  causes.  The  first  source  of  trouble  is  an 
erroneous  idea  of  inspiration.  Older  readers  will 
remember  that  Christians  were  taught  that  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments  were  dictated  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  to  chosen  men;  that  not  only  the 
message  but  the  words  were  of  Divine  origin. 
The  prophet  was  a  kind  of  graphophone,  into 
which  the  Infinite  Spirit  spoke;  when  he  had 
finished  speaking  the  graphophone  repeated  his 
message  to  the  world.  The  prophet  had  little  or 
nothing  to  do  with  it  except  to  take  it  in  and  give 
it  out.    This  is  hardly  an  extreme  statement. 

When  people  began  to  think,  they  felt  that  this 
sort  of  inspiration  was  unreal.  The  human  mind 
when  it  is  at  its  best  is  never  mechanical;  it  is 
always  creative,  never  entirely  passive.    Then 


208     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

again  such  an  idea  of  inspiration  would  lead  us  to 
expect  in  our  sacred  books  absolute  infallibility, 
—  anything  that  comes  altogether  from  God 
must  be  perfect,  —  and  we  have  no  such  record 
in  the  world.  There  is  no  such  thing  in  existence 
as  an  infallible  book.  Thus  men  turned  away 
from  inspiration  on  account  of  an  erroneous  idea 
of  its  essential  nature. 

The  second  cause  of  unbelief  and  disregard  was 
the  habit  of  confining  inspiration  to  one  race;  — 
this  gift  was  the  exclusive  privilege  of  the  people 
of  Israel  and  the  people  of  Israel  for  a  certain 
period  of  time,  and  of  the  elect  only  even  of  this 
people.  Adam,  after  he  got  well  over  his  fall,  was 
inspired,  and  the  inspiration  continued  through 
chosen  men  till  the  last  apostle  of  Jesus  died. 
Here  it  ended;  all  the  peoples  of  the  world,  in  all 
times  of  their  history,  in  all  their  men  of  genius, 
in  all  their  men  of  saintly  aspiration  were  without 
inspired  contact  with  the  living  God.  Here  uni- 
versality was  denied  to  the  idea  or  fact  of  inspira- 
tion, and  this  is  one  of  the  surest  ways  of  turning 
the  whole  subject  out  of  the  serious  and  free  mind 
of  the  world.  Men  say  if  inspiration  is  only  local 
it  cannot  be  real. 

The  third  source  of  our  trouble  is  in  the  fact 
that  inspiration  has  lost  its  interest  for  large 
numbers  of  persons.  These  persons  have  been 
served,  upon  this  subject,  with  artificialities  and 


THE  BEAUTY  OF  INSPIRATION       209 

impossibilities  till  they  have  become  weary  of 
the  whole  business.  Under  the  shadow  of  this 
exhausted  interest  in  inspiration,  a  new  genera- 
tion has  risen  up,  alien  in  mind  and  in  feeling  to 
the  older  habits  of  thought.  Popular  indifference 
is  the  result.  Inspiration  has  become  a  name  for 
senseless  traditions  and  preposterous  claims,  set 
up  in  behalf  of  one  literature  that  happens  to 
have  been  gathered  into  one  volume,  against  all 
other  literatures.  The  persons  I  have  in  mind 
liken  the  search  of  their  fathers  for  inspiration  to 
an  army  marching  across  the  desert,  longing  for 
water,  beholding  something  on  the  horizon  that 
looks  like  a  lake;  the  soldiers  march  double-quick, 
but  when  they  arrive,  it  is  found  that  the  en- 
chanting vision  was  only  a  mirage.  Cheated 
again  and  again,  in  this  way,  hope  fled  from  the 
wisest  of  the  older  generation  and  the  more 
thoughtful  among  the  new  generation  turn  their 
back  upon  this  quest  as  utter  vanity. 

Something  in  man  protests  against  this  easy 
dismissal  of  a  great  human  interest.  Men  are 
environed  by  nature,  by  humanity,  by  the  Infi- 
nite :  in  these  three  forms  the  power  of  the  envi- 
ronment is  upon  them.  These  forms  of  appeal 
are  matched  by  man's  susceptibility.  One  might 
as  well  deny  inflammability  to  kindling  wood, 
placed  over  a  burning  coal,  as  to  deny  to  the  soul 
the  power  of  ignition  in  the  presence  of  the  great 


210      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

aspects  of  our  many-sided  and  potent  environ- 
ment. It  might  turn  out  to  be  the  fact,  upon 
candid  examination,  that  there  is  an  adjustment 
between  the  intellect  of  man  and  his  environment 
of  such  a  nature  that  the  environment  is  inevi- 
tably influential,  stimulative,  inspiring.  This 
idea  would  seem  to  underlie  all  science,  art,  phi- 
losophy and  religion.  Wonder  is  excited  in  the 
soul  by  its  environment;  wonder  is  sustained; 
out  of  wonder  comes  a  purified  curiosity;  curios- 
ity increases  through  the  effort  to  satisfy  it;  a 
whole  range  of  eflFective  emotion  is  thus  brought 
into  the  field  of  action. 

This  mass  of  urgent,  effective  emotion  is  initi- 
ated and  sustained  by  the  environment:  to  this 
extent  it  is  clear  that  the  power  to  inspire  belongs 
to  the  environment  and  that  the  capacity  to  be 
inspired  belongs  to  the  human  intellect.  Here  is 
the  natural,  inevitable,  kindling  potency  beyond 
man;  here  in  man  is  the  native,  inalienable  ca- 
pacity to  be  set  on  fire.  This  is  the  root  of  what 
becomes,  in  the  sphere  of  religion,  the  mighty 
tree,  whose  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the  na- 
tions. When  one  has  discovered  the  source,  even 
if  it  is  only  the  farthest  fountain,  one  has,  in  a 
sense,  discovered  the  river,  the  possibility  of  the 
river,  at  least.  There  is  in  the  environment  of 
man,  considered  as  a  totality,  a  supreme  wonder, 
a  highest  aspect.  It  may  be  that  sensibility  to  our 


THE  REALITY  OF  INSPIRATION       211 

world  environment,  under  its  highest  aspect,  pro- 
found receptivity  of  soul  to  its  appeal,  means 
much  more  than  it  seems.  All  that  men  have  ever 
been  clear  about,  concerning  inspiration,  may  be 
coiled  up  here,  as  in  a  mainspring. 

Reciprocity  is  the  great  law  of  the  world.  It 
obtains  and  holds  everywhere;  it  is  the  mystery 
of  man's  relation  to  nature  both  on  the  physical 
and  the  aesthetic  levels  of  existence;  it  is  the  tie, 
the  ultimate  tie  between  man  and  man,  and  be- 
cause of  its  influence,  we  are  a  race,  mutually 
educative,  upward  and  downward,  and  not  an 
aggregation  of  hard,  exclusive  atoms;  it  is  this 
force  that  keeps  the  many  in  the  One,  that  gave 
Paul  the  right  to  say,  "In  Him  we  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being,"  that  justified  Wordsworth 
when  he  sang  of  the  truths  that 

"make 

Our  noisy  years  seem  moments  in  the  being 

Of  the  Eternal  silence." 

Whoever  would  make  good  his  denial  of  inspira- 
tion must  first  make  good  his  denial  of  all  reci- 
procity in  the  life  of  the  universe.  As  it  would  be 
madness  to  make  this  denial,  as  reciprocity  is  a 
self-evident  law,  the  reality  of  inspiration  stands 
fast. 

Ill 
Man  is  by  the  constitution  of  his  being  inspir- 
able;  he  is  inspirable  in  the  presence  of  nature,  in 


212      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

the  presence  of  the  world  of  human  beings,  and  in 
the  presence  of  the  Infinite  and  Eternal.  Inspi- 
ration means  elevation  of  feeling,  illumination  of 
mind:  the  issue  is  a  clear  and  sure  vision.  It  also 
means  that  the  source  of  this  inspiration  is  in 
each  sphere  the  object  of  thought.  Nature,  in  the 
case  of  the  ordinary  man,  in  the  case  of  the  scien- 
tist, in  the  case  of  the  artist,  is  the  source  of  that 
exaltation,  that  quickened  and  assured  vision; 
the  world  of  men  as  the  object  of  thought  is  the 
source  of  the  mental  illumination;  the  Infinite  as 
the  object  of  the  mind  is  the  final  and  highest 
source  of  insight  and  devotion. 

We  have  as  a  result  three  types  of  the  inspired 
mind,  the  naturalist,  the  humanist,  the  prophet 
of  the  eternal.  We  must  consider  each  of  these 
three  types  of  inspiration;  they  will  show  us,  I 
think,  how  universal  this  great  force  is,  how  con- 
stantly it  operates  in  all  living  minds,  how  surely 
it  stands  as  the  essential  condition  of  man's  best 
life,  and  how  truly  it  comes  to  be  the  consolation 
of  the  human  spirit. 

Man  is  inspirable  in  the  presence  of  the  w^onder 
of  nature.  Ordinary  human  beings  are  moved  in 
the  presence  of  the  sea  on  which  the  tempest  has 
lain  for  many  days,  in  the  presence  of  the  starlit 
evening,  sunrise  and  sunset,  the  vast  mountain 
range,  the  ineffable  murmur  of  the  river,  the  si- 
lence of  the  mighty  forest  or  the  anthem  rung  from 


THE  BEALITT  OF  INSPIRATION        213 

it  by  the  strong  wind;  the  sohtary  heavenly  note 
of  the  hermit  thrush  coming  up  from  the  silent 
depths  of  the  woods;  in  the  presence  of  these 
wonders  ordinary  men  are  exalted  in  feeling  and 
quickened  in  intellect.  Upon  this  table-land  of 
ordinary  experience  the  peaks  of  genius  rise  and 
soar  away,  like  the  Alps  that  rise  from  the  val- 
ley of  the  Engadine,  which  is  six  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea  level,  and  soar  away  in  the  case  of 
Piz  Bernina  to  fourteen  thousand  feet. 

The  cosmos  gets  into  the  feelings,  the  imagina- 
tion and  the  intellect  of  Copernicus  and  soon  a 
new  solar  system  comes  to  mankind,  so  sure  that 
we  can  hardly  take  in  the  fact  that  human  minds 
have  ever  believed  in  any  other.  The  cosmos  gets 
into  the  feeling,  imagination  and  intellect  of  New- 
ton and  again  comes  the  permanent  discovery  of 
the  universal  force  of  gravity.  The  movement  of 
life  on  this  planet  fascinates  Darwin,  gets  into 
his  feeling  and  imagination,  enters  his  intelli- 
gence, and  once  more  there  comes  a  new  natural 
history  of  life  on  this  earth.  The  scientists  who  are 
advancing  human  knowledge  in  all  departments 
of  research  are  men  standing  in  the  presence  of 
the  wonder  of  nature;  first  of  all  they  are  fasci- 
nated by  that  wonder.  Nature  has  got  into  their 
feelings,  their  interests,  their  enthusiasms,  their 
imagination;  they  are  lovers  waiting  till  the  great 
secret  rises  like  a  star  in  the  devoted  intellect. 


214     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

Nature  inspires  the  scientific  mind,  keeps  it 
working  at  its  maximum  of  insight  and  power, 
sustains  it  by  the  interest  it  awakens  till  the  fact 
is  seen  and  the  law  made  clear.  As  science  is 
inspired  by  the  truth  of  nature,  art  is  inspired 
by  the  beauty  of  nature.  Here  again  the  ordi- 
nary mind  precedes  the  artistic  genius.  One  eve- 
ning, some  years  since,  I  was  coming  home  be- 
tween eight  and  nine  o'clock,  and  as  I  was  about 
to  turn  into  the  street  on  which  my  house  stands, 
my  eye  was  caught  by  the  most  extraordinary 
star  in  the  heavens.  I  said  to  myseK,  that  star 
must  be  Sirius.  I  stopped  to  make  good  my  im- 
pression. There  hung  from  the  roof  of  the  night, 
the  great  constellation  of  Orion.  From  the  star 
in  the  east  corner  of  the  square  of  Orion,  accord- 
ing to  the  diagram  in  the  books,  a  straight  line 
led  to  Sirius,  shining  there  blue,  wildly  beautiful, 
incomparable.  I  wanted  to  call  my  friends  to  see 
the  great  sight,  to  enjoy  with  me  this  transcend- 
ent stellar  splendor,  to  be  awed  and  lifted,  as  I 
was  by  this  superlative  wonder  of  the  night. 
Thus  I,  representative  of  the  common  man,  in 
aesthetic  sensibility,  felt;  here  is  the  same  feeling 
greatened  in  the  heart  of  the  poet,  who  joins  in 
one  fellowship  two  heavenly  lights: 

**Star  Sirius  and  the  Pole  Star  dwell  afar 
Beyond  the  drawings  each  of  other's  strength: 
One  blazes  through  the  brief  bright  summer's  length 
Lavishing  life-heat  from  a  flaming  car; 


THE  REALITY  OF  INSPIBATION        215 

While  one  unchangeable  upon  a  throne 

Broods  o'er  the  frozen  heart  of  earth  alone, 

Content  to  reign  the  bright  particular  star 

Of  some  who  wander  or  of  some  who  groan. 

They  own  no  drawings  each  of  other's  strength. 

Nor  vibrate  in  a  visible  sympathy. 

Nor  veer  along  their  courses  each  toward  each: 

Yet  are  their  orbits  pitch'd  in  harmony 

Of  one  dear  heaven,  across  whose  depth  and  length 

Mayhap  they  talk  together  without  speech." 

Or  this  on  Orion,  the  guide  to  Sirius: 

"How  oft  I've  watch'd  thee  from  the  garden  croft. 
In  silence,  when  the  busy  day  was  done. 
Shining  with  wondrous  brilliancy  aloft. 
And  flickering  like  a  casement  'gainst  the  sun! 
I  've  seen  thee  soar  from  out  some  snowy  cloud. 
Which  held  the  frozen  breath  of  land  and  sea. 
Yet  broke  and  sever'd  as  the  wind  grew  loud  — 
But  earth-bound  winds  could  not  dismember  thee. 
Nor  shake  thy  frame  of  jewels;  I  have 
At  thy  strange  shape  and  function,  haply  felt 
The  charm  of  that  old  myth  about  thy  belt 
And  sword;  but  most  my  spirit  was  possess'd 
By  His  great  Presence,  Who  is  never  far 
From  his  light-bearers,  whether  man  or  star." 

The  power  of  nature  over  poetic  sensibility  of 
the  first  order  may  be  seen  perhaps  at  its  best  in 
Shelley's  "Cloud."  Here  the  poetic  inspiration, 
from  nature,  is  clearly  transcendent;  it  has  risen 
into  another  world  from  that  of  ordinary  aes- 
thetic experience: 

"I  bring  fresh  showers  for  the  thirsting  flowers. 
From  the  seas  and  the  streams. 


216      ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

I  bear  light  shade  for  the  leaves  when  laid 

In  their  noonday  dreams. 
From  my  wings  are  shaken  the  dews  that  waken 

The  sweet  buds  every  one, 
When  rocked  to  rest  on  their  mother's  breast. 

As  she  dances  about  the  sun. 
I  wield  the  flail  of  the  lashing  hail, 

And  whiten  the  green  plains  under. 
And  then  again  I  dissolve  it  in  rain, 

And  laugh  as  I  pass  in  thunder. 


"  The  sanguine  sunrise,  with  his  meteor  eyes. 

And  his  burning  plumes  outspread, 
Leaps  on  the  back  of  my  sailing  rack. 

When  the  morning  star  shines  dead; 
As  on  the  jag  of  a  mountain  crag. 

Which  an  earthquake  rocks  and  swings. 
An  eagle  alit  one  moment  may  sit 

In  the  light  of  its  golden  wings. 
And  when  sunset  may  breathe,  from  the  lit  sea 
beneath. 

Its  ardours  of  rest  and  of  love. 
And  the  crimson  pall  of  eve  may  fall 

From  the  depth  of  heaven  above. 
With  wings  folded  I  rest,  on  mine  airy  nest, 

As  still  as  a  brooding  dove. 


'  That  orbed  maiden,  with  white  fire  laden. 

Whom  mortals  call  the  moon. 
Glides  glimmering  o'er  my  fleece-like  floor. 

By  the  midnight  breezes  strewn; 
And  wherever  the  beat  of  her  unseen  feet. 

Which  only  the  angels  hear, 
May  have  broken  the  woof  of  my  tent's  thin  roof. 

The  stars  peep  behind  her  and  peer; 


THE  REALITY  OF  INSPIRATION        217 

And  I  laugh  to  see  them  whirl  and  flee, 

Like  a  swarm  of  golden  bees, 
When  I  widen  the  rent  in  my  wind-built  tent. 

Till  the  calm  rivers,  lakes,  and  seas. 
Like  strips  of  the  sky  fallen  through  me  on  high. 

Are  each  paved  with  the  moon  and  these." 

Here  is  a  poet,  standing  in  the  presence  of  na- 
ture, controlled  by  its  spirit  of  beauty.  Who  can 
read  his  lines  and  deny  the  reality  of  inspiration 
as  man  stands  in  the  presence  of  nature?  The 
reality  of  inspiration  here  is  first  part  of  the  life 
of  normal  man,  and  second,  it  is  in  unique  degree, 
the  unshared  privilege  of  genius. 

We  come  now  to  another  phase  of  our  subject. 
Man  is  inspirable  in  the  presence  of  the  wonder 
of  the  human  world.  All  the  great  things  that 
have  come  to  us  in  literature,  the  great  humani- 
ties, have  come  to  us  from  men  who  have  been 
set  going  in  their  intellect  and  in  their  interests, 
set  going  in  a  marvellous  way,  by  the  appeal  of 
our  human  world.  The  greater  ethical  insights, 
the  profounder  political  ideas,  the  ideals  that  have 
initiated  human  reforms  and  that  have  promised 
better  days  for  men  as  men,  have  come  from  the 
humanists  w^ho  have  been  thrilled  and  filled  by 
the  glory  of  our  human  world. 

The  greatest  humanist  in  English  literature 
is  Shakspere.  How  vast  is  his  vision  of  that 
human  world  in  which  we  live,  in  depth,  in  com- 


218     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

pass,  in  tragic  grandeur,  in  ineffable  beauty !  He 
did  not  make  that  world  but  he  loved  it  and  he 
had  the  capacity  to  receive  part  of  its  immeasur- 
able meaning.  There  is  the  witness  of  his  great 
Sonnet  on  Love : 

"Love  is  not  love 
Which  alters  when  it  alteration  finds. 
Or  bends  with  the  remover  to  remove. 
O,  no!  it  is  an  ever-fixed  mark 
That  looks  on  tempests  and  is  never  shaken; 
It  is  the  star  to  every  wand'ring  bark, 
Whose  worth  's  unknown,  although  his  height 
be  taken." 

Or,  again,  those  words  that  Hamlet  wrote  to 
Ophelia,  true  through  the  whole  lurid  mistake 
and  horror  of  the  drama,  true,  everlastingly  true : 

"Doubt  thou  the  stars  are  fire; 
Doubt  that  the  sun  doth  move; 
Doubt  truth  to  be  a  liar; 
But  never  doubt  I  love.'* 

The  human  heart  has  this  capacity;  we  know  it 
has  this  capacity,  and  Shakspere,  standing  in  its 
presence,  glorified  it  in  his  great  words.  And 
Cordelia,  beautiful  CordeHa,  overwhelmed  with 
misunderstanding,  caught  in  the  black  tragedy  of 
life  where  her  very  goodness  became  a  fatality, 
listen  to  her: 

**And  what  shall  poor  Cordelia  do? 
Love  and  be  silent." 


THE  REALITY  OF  INSPIBATION        219 

Are  not  these  words  very  near  to  those  of  the 
Apostle  Paul,  when  he  wrote,  **Love  never  fail- 
eth"? 

There  is  another  humanist,  second  only  to 
Shakspere,  who  is  a  witness  to  the  truth  of  the 
contention  that  I  am  making  that  while  all  men 
are  affected  more  or  less  in  emotion  and  intelli- 
gence, by  the  wonder  of  our  human  world,  men 
of  genius  see  things  that  we  do  not  see.  Go  with 
Robert  Burns  to  that  gathering  of  mendicants  in 
a  Scottish  inn  or  grogshop  where  they  pawn  their 
extra  clothing,  **  their  orra  duddies,"  and  spend 
the  night  in  a  revel  of  whiskey  drinking,  and  what 
do  you  see?  Squalor,  vice,  disgrace,  shameless- 
ness,  something  utterly  hideous  to  your  nature. 
All  that  is  there,  but  there  is  something  else 
there  which  the  poet  alone  sees;  that  is  human- 
ity intact  though  soiled,  humanity  courageous 
though  rough  and  coarse,  humanity  still  capable 
of  covenanting  and  loving,  humanity  capable  of 
redemption;  by  his  insight  and  sympathy  the 
poet  lifted  that  world,  all  damaged  but  yet  hu- 
man, into  a  great  poem,  into  a  great  revelation 
of  the  soul  of  good  in  things  evil. 

Go  with  Burns  to  a  scene  of  an  opposite  char- 
acter, "The  Cotter's  Saturday  Night."  You  see 
the  humble  man  coming  home  from  his  week's 
work,  with  the  mud  on  his  shoes,  all  over  pretty 
well  covered  with  mud.  He  is  not  a  very  impres- 


220      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

sive  sight  to  you.  You  note  the  children  as  they 
come  out  to  meet  him;  they  are  poorly  clad  and 
perhaps  not  very  clean.  You  see  the  humble 
woman,  the  mother  and  wife;  there  she  is  in  plain 
clothing;  she  is  worn  with  hard  work  and  worry; 
the  bloom  has  faded  from  her  face.  You  watch 
as  the  meal  is  prepared,  —  the  evening  meal,  and 
it  seems  bare  and  poor.  You  look  about  you  and 
see  the  little  room  lighted  by  a  rush  light;  you 
notice  the  glee,  the  content,  the  clean  quiet  mirth 
of  the  family;  the  gathering  of  friends  later,  and 
you  are  affected  in  some  degree  by  the  piety, 
simplicity  and  humanity  of  the  scene. 

How  does  the  scene  affect  the  poet  Burns?  He 
sees  the  beauty  and  the  sanctity  of  wedded  love; 
the  serious  joy  of  the  husband  and  father,  the 
poetry  that  lights  up  his  work  and  its  drudgery; 
he  notes  the  budding  love  in  the  new  generation, 
the  Highest  at  work  in  the  hearts  of  the  young 
preparing  for  a  new  apocalypse  of  himself;  he  sees 
the  religious  faith  that  overcomes  the  world,  that 
binds  it  back  to  the  Eternal. 

**  The  priest-like  father  reads  the  sacred  page, 
How  Abram  was  the  friend  of  God  on  high; 
Or,  Moses  bade  eternal  warfare  wage 
With  Amalek's  ungracious  progeny. 

"Perhaps  the  Christian  volume  is  the  theme: 
How  guiltless  blood  for  guilty  man  was  shed; 
How  He,  who  bore  in  Heaven  the  second  name, 
Had  not  on  earth  whereon  to  lay  His  head. 


THE  REALITY  OF  INSPIRATION        221 


**  From  scenes  like  these,  old  Scotia's  grandeur  springs. 
That  makes  her  lov'd  at  home^  rever'd  abroad; 
Princes  and  lords  are  but  the  breath  of  kings, 
*An  honest  man's  the  noblest  work  of  God."* 

There  is  your  humanist,  inspired  by  the  wonder 
of  our  human  world.  Under  this  inspiration  he 
lays  open  to  the  depths  the  beauty  that  dwells 
with  true  souls,  the  beauty  that  even  fate  cannot 
drive  from  man's  world.  The  best  of  Burns' 
songs  have  the  same  value;  the  poet  passed  over 
from  all  that  was  gross  in  his  nature  into  the 
power  of  the  beauty  of  the  world  of  love;  he  was 
for  the  time  being,  at  least,  made  pure  by  what 
he  saw,  by  what  took  possession  of  him;  his  voice 
became  the  lyric  of  the  purest  and  dearest  hu- 
manities; as  for  example, 

"  My  love  is  like  a  red,  red  rose 
That's  newly  sprung  in  June: 
My  love  is  like  the  melodic 
That's  sweetly  play'd  in  tune. 

*'  As  fair  art  thou,  my  bonnie  lass. 
So  deep  in  love  am  I : 
And  I  will  love  thee  still,  my  dear. 
Till  a'  the  seas  gang  dry. 

"  Till  a'  the  seas  gang  dry,  my  dear. 
And  the  rocks  melt  wi'  the  sun: 
And  I  will  love  thee  still,  mj^  dear. 
While  the  sands  o'  life  shall  run." 


222      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

We  thus  approach  the  last  and  highest  sphere 
of  inspiration.  Man  is  inspirable  in  the  presence 
of  the  Infinite;  of  that  there  would  seem  to  be  no 
doubt;  all  religion  attests  it.  The  Infinite  as  a 
reality  confronts  man  every  day;  he  may  call 
it  fate,  matter,  force,  moral  order,  impersonal 
mind  or  personal  spirit.  There  it  is;  no  one  can 
deny  it,  no  one  wishes  to  deny  it  while  he  is  sane. 
As  men  stand  there  all  have  at  times  a  sense  of 
awe.  "When  I  consider  I  am  afraid."  This  wild, 
boundless  universe;  we  have  our  dreams  about  it, 
wondering  what  its  inmost  character  may  be. 
Many  are  bewildered  by  it;  they  have  this 
thought  about  it  and  that;  which  is  true  and 
which  is  false  they  cannot  tell;  they  are  simply 
bewildered.  This  amazing  totality,  this  infinite 
universe,  in  part  benignant  and  in  part  wild 
terror;  who  can  deliver  any  sure  insight  concern- 
ing it !  Men  of  supreme  religious  genius  come  to 
our  help  here;  they  are  carried  away  by  the  Eter- 
nal; the  Infinite  interests  them  as  nothing  else 
does;  their  heart  and  their  soul  go  out  to  it,  they 
gain  certain  transcendent  experiences  under  the 
impact,  under  the  inspiration  of  the  Infinite. 
This  experience  which  they  receive  from  the  heart 
of  things,  which  is  their  noblest  strength,  their 
abiding  consolation,  their  supreme  joy,  they  shape 
into  speech  and  deliver  as  God's  word  to  them, 
as  God's  message  through  them  to  the  world. 


THE  BEALITY  OF  INSPIRATION        223 

Such  is  the  prophet,  not  the  ordinary  prophet, 
but  the  supreme  prophet.  He  is  caught  and  car- 
ried away  by  the  Infinite,  as  the  artist  is  by  the 
depth  and  beauty  of  human  Hfe;  and  God  tells 
him  his  name,  his  character;  gives  him  an  experi- 
ence of  such  wealth  and  worth  and  power  that  it 
transforms  his  entire  existence.  This  as  I  have 
said  he  shapes  into  speech  and  delivers  as  the 
oracle  of  God.  Such  were  the  highest  of  the  He- 
brew prophets.  They  began  their  prophetic  voca- 
tion by  the  profoundest,  the  most  central,  the 
most  interior  religious  experience;  their  life  be- 
came a  new  thing  to  them  under  the  impact  of 
the  Infinite.  That  was  God's  oracle  to  them; 
God's  oracle  to  them  became  his  message  to 
their  race  and  to  the  world. 

Here  is  the  secret  of  Jesus.  He  was  the  child  of 
the  Infinite;  he  was  always  in  the  Eternal;  he  was 
sensitive  to  the  Highest  beyond  our  utmost 
dream.  He  knew  the  Highest  was  on  the  field 
when  it  was  a  blank  to  every  one  else.  His  whole 
soul  rose  in  openness,  in  trust,  in  adoration,  in 
obedience  to  the  Infinite,  and  the  Infinite  told 
him  his  name  Father,  Eternal  Love;  the  Infinite 
shaped  himself  into  an  experience  in  the  soul  of 
Jesus  which  for  clearness  and  sureness  is  unlike 
anything  that  we  know.  That  experience  came 
forth  as  God's  word  to  Jesus;  as  God's  gospel 
through  Jesus  to  mankind. " 


224     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

The  disciples  of  Jesus  followed  the  example  of 
their  Master;  they  opened  life  to  the  Infinite. 
This  was  the  meaning  of  their  belief  in  the  Holy 
Spirit.  They  came  to  hold  in  their  hearts  a  secret 
experience;  it  was  slight  at  first,  a  mere  brook 
ankle-deep,  issuing  from  the  sanctuary;  later  it 
became  a  river  to  swim  in.  Through  the  ages  gen- 
uinely religious  people  have  attained  to  a  fullness 
of  heart,  a  Gospel  all  their  own.  They  have  seen 
something,  they  have  felt  something,  they  have 
experienced  something,  and  that  something 
shaped  itself  into  the  genuine  word  of  God  to 
each  one  of  them.  Something  shaped  itself  so 
that  a  mother  could  give  it  to  her  children,  a 
friend  to  his  friends,  a  preacher  to  his  people; 
God's  word  to  each  became  God's  message 
through  each  to  others.  That  is  the  innermost 
reality,  the  essential  heart  of  the  whole  matter. 

Our  little  bit  of  immediate  inspiration,  imme- 
diate experience  under  the  training  and  brooding 
of  the  Eternal,  we  get  enlarged  by  joining  it  to 
the  great  world  experience  of  Jesus.  Here  is  a 
small  inland  sea;  it  is  beautiful,  and  it  gets  out 
into  all  the  seas;  the  Black  Sea  finds  a  way  into 
the  Sea  of  Marmora,  the  Sea  of  Marmora  into  the 
Mediterranean,  the  Mediterranean  into  the  At- 
lantic; thus  the  local  greatens  itself  in  the  uni- 
versal. In  this  way  will  men  enlarge  their  little 
bit  of  personal  experience.  They  greaten  it  in  the 


THE  REALITY  OF  INSPIRATION        225 

bigger  and  the  yet  bigger  till  they  merge  it  in  the 
soul  of  Jesus,  in  the  Eternal  Spirit;  then  it  be- 
comes part  of  the  great  ocean  of  experienced 
divinity  that  goes  round  the  world. 

The  Soul  of  the  universe  and  the  soul  of  man 
are  kindred;  that  is  the  basal  idea  lying  in  the 
heart  of  all  great  religion.  There  is,  there  must  be 
reciprocity,  of  one  kind  or  another,  of  one  degree 
or  another  between  man  and  the  Eternal  Spirit. 
Emerson,  in  four  exquisite  lines,  expresses  the 
inevitable  law  that  underlies  the  inspirability  of 
man.  He  is  singing  of  the  Harp,  the  seolian  Harp, 
the  symbol  of  man's  soul  in  a  kindred,  friendly 
universe,  and  this  is  his  song: 

*' Speaks  not  of  self  that  mystic  tone. 
But  of  the  Overgods  alone: 
It  trembles  to  the  cosmic  breath,  — 
As  it  heareth  so  it  saith." 

All  varieties  of  speech,  as  the  result  of  the  impact 
of  the  Infinite  upon  human  sensibility,  are  here 
provided  for,  from  Pope's  untutored  Indian, 

"Who  sees  God  in  clouds 
And  hears  him  in  the  wind," 

to  the  supreme  prophets  of  the  world,  to  him 
whose  whole  life  was  lived  in  the  moral  grace  of 
the  Infinite,  whose  spirit  revealed  the  love  of  his 
Father,  whose  speech  remains  the  highest  wisdom 
and  the  divinest  music  of  the  world. 


226      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEBY 

What  is  our  gain  from  this  insight  into  the  real- 
ity of  inspiration?  In  answer  to  this  question  it 
may  be  said  that  in  inspiration  we  see  the  origin 
of  all  high  scientific  discovery,  all  great  art,  all 
true  religion;  here,  too,  we  see  the  fountain  of  that 
joy  in  truth  and  beauty  and  goodness  that  is  the 
noblest  satisfaction  of  all  normal  human  beings. 
Surely  it  is  something  to  see  that  from  the  way  in 
which  the  greater  aspects  of  the  mystery  of  the 
universe  affect  us,  and  from  our  capacity  to  be 
thus  affected,  the  whole  higher  life  of  mankind 
issues.  Our  possessions  are  thus  won;  if  our  sensi- 
bility were  deeper  and  finer,  our  possessions 
might  be  richer  and  more  precious,  and  our  de- 
light in  them  correspondingly  increased. 

Which  form  of  inspiration  is  standard  for  the 
definition  of  all  the  varieties  of  the  experience? 
That  question  will  be  answered  differently  by  the 
several  exclusive  devotees  of  truth,  and  beauty, 
and  goodness.  Scientific  inspiration  proceeds  by 
exact  methods,  to  exact  results;  it  ends  with  the 
ascertainment  of  fact  and  the  discovery  of  law. 
While  science  remains  science  it  provides  no  vi- 
sion for  art,  and  no  Soul  of  the  universe  for 
religion. 

Art  is  man's  creative  response  to  the  beauty  of 
things;  Art  sees  and  feels  the  beauty  of  the  world; 
it  is  stirred  to  creative  power  by  its  vision  and  its 
passion.  Art  confesses  its  inspiration  as  the  con- 


THE  REALITY  OF  INSPIRATION        227 

dition  of  its  vision  of  beauty  and  its  creation  of 
beauty,  but  it  is  without  a  philosophy  of  the  na- 
ture of  the  ultimate  ground  of  beauty.  Here  is  a 
simple  fact,  inspiration,  vision,  creation;  the  pure 
artist  need  go  no  further;  he  rarely  goes  further, 
unless  indeed  he  becomes  more  than  an  artist. 
Keats  speaks  for  the  entire  guild  of  pure  artists : 

"Beauty  is  truth,  truth  beauty,  —  that  is  all 
Ye  know  on  earth,  and  all  ye  need  to  know." 

Religion,  great  religion,  lives  in  another  man- 
ner, under  its  form  of  inspiration.  The  universe 
in  its  totality  is  interpreted  by  its  highest  aspect. 
That  highest  aspect  is  Soul,  answering  to  man's 
soul,  possessing  infinite  worth,  of  infinite  com- 
passion, perfect  in  every  attribute  of  truth  and 
beauty  and  goodness.  The  object  of  religion  is 
the  ultimate  reality  that  lives  in  and  behind  the 
facts  and  laws  that  engage  the  scientific  mind;  it 
is  the  Infinite  origin  of  the  beauty  that  fills  with 
delight  the  spirit  of  the  artist;  the  inspiration, 
therefore,  under  which  religion  lives,  and  the  in- 
sight in  which  it  issues,  is  the  highest  and  surest. 
While  it  leaves  them  in  perfect  freedom,  religion 
supplements  both  the  scientific  view  of  life  and 
the  artistic;  it  completes  these  two  partial  views 
in  the  vision  of  the  whole. 

Can  anything  clear  and  sure  be  said  on  the 
form  which  the  Infinite  assumes  in  great  religious 


228     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

experience?  Why  should  great  rehgious  experi- 
ence shape  itself  into  the  assumption  or  insight 
that  the  Infinite  is  a  soul?  That  it  does  so  shape 
itself,  in  all  great  religion,  with  the  exception  of 
Buddhism,  would  seem  to  be  a  fact.  Why?  By 
what  right  or  justification? 

I  suppose,  by  the  fact  that  the  Ultimate  Real- 
ity can  become  intelligible  to  man,  or  be  of  intel- 
ligible value  to  man,  in  no  other  way.*  I  take  it  all 
views  of  the  universe  are  ultimately  interpreta- 
tions, and  that  these  interpretations  are  made, 
now  by  one  aspect  of  the  human  personality  and 
again  by  another.  Fate,  Force,  Matter,  Imper- 
sonal Mind,  are  all  interpretations  of  the  uni- 
verse, through  aspects  of  the  human  personality, 
abstracted  from  the  whole.  The  abstraction  at- 
tempts to  justify  itself  in  the  facts  that  look  to- 
ward a  universe  of  fate,  force,  matter,  impersonal 
intelligence;  none  the  less  is  it  an  endeavor 
through  one  category  of  the  mind  or  another  to 
construe  the  nature  of  the  Eternal  mystery.  Re- 
ligion disapproves  of  this  abstraction,  this  muti- 
lation of  the  instrument  of  interpretation.  The 
soul  of  man  is  satisfied  by  the  Infinite,  and  it  is 
held  that  only  the  Infinite  as  Soul  can  satisfy 
man  as  soul. 

Experience  runs  inevitably  into  this  august 
personal  form.  The  profound  experience  of  the 
great  prophets  of  Israel  is  all  of  this  character; 


THE  REALITY  OF  INSPIRATION        229 

the  experience  of  Jesus  is,  with  perfect  spontane- 
ity, in  form  always  personal.  The  Infinite  is  to 
Jesus  the  Father;  the  universe  is  his  Father's 
house.  In  the  great  religious  souls  of  Christen- 
dom the  experience  issues,  usually  as  the  result  of 
struggle,  in  the  same  personal  form.  The  parable 
for  it  is  the  wrestling  of  Jacob.  In  the  night  of 
the  soul,  the  struggle  begins;  the  reality  is  at  first 
nameless  and  unknown.  The  contest  continues 
through  the  long  watches  of  the  night;  it  becomes 
clear  to  the  human  soul  that  a  man  is  wrestling 
with  it,  a  soul  other  than,  higher  than  and  yet  an- 
swering to  itself.  The  character  of  this  soul  is 
finally  discovered;  the  Infinite  has  run  into  the 
form  of  human  personality,  glorified  by  eternal 
goodness.  The  issue  of  the  vast,  mystic  experi- 
ence is  in  the  triumphant  cry,  "  I  have  seen  God 
face  to  face  and  my  life  is  preserved."  In  great 
religious  experience  two  souls  are  present,  —  the 
soul  of  man  and  the  Infinite  Soul.  The  religious 
man  thinks  he  cannot  be  wrong  in  trusting  the 
voice  and  verdict  of  his  profoundest  and  best  life. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   DUALISM  IN  MAN 
I 

One  great  aspect  of  the  mystery  of  our  life  lies  in 
its  dualism.  It  is  neither  the  one  thing  nor  the 
other.  Man's  being  is  neither  wholly  animal  nor 
wholly  spiritual;  it  is  a  combination  and  often  a 
confusion  of  both.  It  is  this  dualism  that  vexes 
our  existence,  that  makes  it  so  inscrutable,  that 
puts  before  us  the  most  vital  of  all  our  practical 
problems  —  that  of  personal  character. 

At  first  this  dualism  is  accentuated  by  the  reli- 
gious ideal.  There  is  the  harmony  of  the  unmoral 
life  and  there  is  the  harmony  of  the  life  that  has 
fought  its  great  battle  and  won,  whose  task  is  to 
secure  and  ennoble  the  conquest  that  has  been 
made.  There  is  besides  the  dualism  of  the  human 
nature  breaking  into  a  sense  of  the  life  of  the  flesh 
and  the  life  of  the  spirit.  It  is  this  dualism  that  is 
often  deepened  by  the  vision  of  the  Christian 
ideal.  The  impossibility  of  the  existence  of  inte- 
rior moral  order,  of  meeting  the  demands  of  the 
ideal  often  seems  absolute,  and  creates  in  many 
persons  something  like  despair  of  goodness.  The 
great  prophet  of  Israel  sees  the  moral  ideal  and 
his  primary  response  to  it  is  in  these  words :  "  Woe 


THE  DUALISM  IN  MAN  231 

is  me!  for  I  am  undone;  because  I  am  a  man  of 
unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell  in  the  midst  of  a  people 
of  unclean  lips :  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  the  King, 
the  Lord  of  Hosts."  ^  The  most  eager  and  the 
frankest  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus  said,  "Depart 
from  me,  O  Lord,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man."  The 
presence  of  the  moral  or  religious  ideal  not  only 
deepens  the  sense  of  worthlessness,  but  also 
accentuates  the  apparently  ineradicable  contra- 
diction in  the  human  soul.  Swift  with  his  keen 
eye  upon  this  contradiction  and  what  it  leads  to, 
and  with  grim  tragic  humor,  writes:  "But  a 
broomstick,  perhaps  you  will  say,  is  an  emblem  of 
a  tree  standing  on  its  head;  and  pray  what  is 
man  but  a  topsy-turvey  creature,  his  animal 
faculties  perpetually  mounted  on  his  rational,  his 
head  where  his  heels  should  be,  grovelling  on  the 
earth."  ^  The  same  writer  remarks  elsewhere 
that  "we  have  just  enough  religion  to  make  us 
hate,  but  not  enough  to  make  us  love  one  an- 
other." ^  The  religious  ideal  seeks  to  undo  the 
inversion  of  which  Swift  speaks,  and  to  create 
the  love  that  conquers  hate;  its  presence  and 
endeavor  bring  into  view,  at  first,  hardly  any- 
thing more  than  the  immensity  of  the  problem. 
Begin  to  clean  the  interior  of  the  great  ship,  pour 
the  hot  water  through  the  entire  hold,  and  the 

1  Is.  6:  5.        ^  "  A  Meditation  upon  a  Broomstick." 
3  "Thoughts  on  Various  Subjects." 


232     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

number  of  unsuspected  rats  that  will  run  to  the 
deck  will  make  you  aware,  for  the  first  time,  what 
sort  of  creatures  have  been  mixed  with  your 
cargo. 

As  we  face  this  ultimate  dualism,  watch  its 
aggravation  under  the  presence  of  the  religious 
ideal,  and  note  its  persistence,  we  see  clearly  the 
origin  of  two  great  errors  that  prevail  concerning 
the  meaning  of  man's  nature;  we  can  see,  too,  the 
plausibility  of  the  reasoning  advanced  in  support 
of  these  one-sided  and  erroneous  beliefs. 

There  is  the  naturalistic  error.  The  animal 
knows  no  schism  in  his  being,  he  is  a  pure  self- 
seeker,  limited  by  parental  instinct  and  limited 
in  a  measure  by  social  instinct,  but  in  all  and 
through  all  a  pure  self-seeker,  undisturbed  by 
any  sense  of  wrong,  or  sin,  in  the  evolution  of 
his  egoism.  Many  have  endeavored  to  construe 
human  life  in  this  way.  They  say  man  is  an  ani- 
mal, like  other  animals;  he  was  born  here,  he 
breathes  the  air  of  this  planet,  lives  upon  the  food 
supplied  by  it,  finds  a  mate  as  the  birds  do,  ex- 
presses his  being  in  other  organisms,  like  his  own, 
as  do  the  animals,  grows  old,  wears  out,  dies, 
turns  to  dust,  and  as  he  began  here  so  he  ends 
here.  The  mind  that  he  has  is  given  him  simply 
for  economic,  domestic,  social  and  political  util- 
ity; it  has  no  transcendent  meaning.  What  char- 
acter man  has  comes  from  the  struggle,  the  sue- 


THE  DUALISM  IN  MAN  233 

cessful  struggle  for  existence;  he  comes  to  know 
when  it  is  wise  to  tell  the  truth  and  when  it  is  best 
to  lie.  Love  is  simply  an  incident  of  the  physical 
organism  which  swells  in  youth  and  maintains 
itself  through  the  years  and  fades  out  with  old 
age.  Many  human  beings  have  tried  to  think  out 
human  life  in  this  way  and  multitudes  in  all  lands 
and  among  all  races  are  trying  to  live  human  life 
on  the  animal  hypothesis.  The  religious  ideal  is 
here  an  alien,  a  troubler  of  our  animal  peace;  it  is 
to  be  expelled  as  an  alien  and  as  evil. 

This  simplification  of  our  total  humanity  to 
the  level  of  the  consistent  self-seeker  is  met  by 
four  great  protests.  There  is  the  protest  from  the 
sense  of  beauty;  the  beauty  of  nature  is  rich,  end- 
less, and  normal  man  is  sensitive  to  it.  There  is 
the  beauty  of  the  world  of  art,  created  by  man's 
genius.  What  possible  relation  has  the  sense  of 
beauty  to  the  mere  animal  struggle  for  existence? 
From  a  purely  economic  point  of  view  the  money 
spent  upon  art  is  sheer,  clear  waste;  if  beauty  be 
not  the  consolation  of  man's  spirit,  if  it  be  not  a 
means  of  exaltation,  if  it  be  not  a  ministry  of 
dignity,  sweetness  and  grace  to  the  human  soul, 
then  it  is  waste;  it  does  not  further  the  mere  fight 
on  the  economic  field. 

There  is  the  protest  of  truth.  Man  is  a  being 
capable  of  pure,  theoretic  interest.  What  is  sci- 
ence but  intellect  consecrated  to  the  discovery  of 


234     ASPECTS  OF  TUB  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

the  fact,  the  whole  fact  and  nothing  but  the  fact, 
whether  the  fact  be  against  or  for  humanity. 
What  is  philosophy  but  the  endeavor  to  discover 
the  meaning  of  our  human  existence,  whether 
that  meaning  be  what  we  should  like  or  the  re- 
verse of  what  we  should  like.  Here,  then,  is  a 
theory,  an  interest,  pure,  unstained,  having 
nothing  to  do  with  the  struggle  for  existence. 
The  superior  thinker  is  evident  by  his  freedom 
from  bias;  his  passion  is  for  truth,  burning,  and 
wearing  forms  of  splendor  as  in  Plato;  profound, 
unobtrusive,  all  pervading,  inexhaustible  as  in 
Aristotle.  Bias  does  not  mean  a  sense  of  the  dig- 
nity of  our  human  world;  prejudice  does  not  sig- 
nify the  vision  of  the  worth  of  humanity.  Bias  is 
party  spirit,  prejudice  is  a  form  of  perversity;  the 
real  stain  upon  the  thinker  is  the  wish  to  see 
things  other  than  they  are,  to  play  the  advocate 
by  concealing  the  momentous  and  by  elevating 
to  the  chief  place  the  incidental  and  the  trivial. 
Here,  too,  is  the  love  that  the  naturalist  carica- 
tures in  the  fortunate  young  people  who  are 
about  to  found  a  home.  This  is  surely  one  of  the 
most  moving,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  things  in 
the  world.  There  is  nothing  that  a  wise  man  de- 
lights in  more  than  in  the  marriage  of  fit  persons. 
And  there  is  the  love  that  comes  with  children; 
infinite  tenderness  comes  and  an  altruism  as  pure 
as  the  stars.  There  is  the  love  that  supports  man- 


THE  DUALISM  IN  MAN  235 

hood  and  womanhood  under  the  heat  and  burden 
of  the  day;  there  is  love  in  old  age,  often  the  best 
form  of  love,  seen  in  grandparents.  Their  love  is 
wholly  disinterested;  gain  other  than  the  delight 
of  loving  is  far  from  it.  There  is  the  love  that 
breathes  out  its  fire  in  death.  When  Tennyson 
was  on  his  death  bed,  his  physician  told  him  this 
incident  that  had  lately  happened.  "A  villager, 
ninety  years  old,  was  dying,  and  had  so  much 
pined  to  see  his  old  bedridden  wife  once  more 
that  they  had  carried  her  to  where  he  lay.  He 
pressed  his  shrunken  hand  upon  her  hand,  and  in 
a  husky  voice  said  to  her,  *  Come  soon,'  and  soon 
after  passed  away  himself."  ^  Such  an  incident 
carries  in  it  an  experience  wide  as  the  bounds  of 
time;  it  is  this  experience  that  lies  enshrined  in 
one  of  Burns'  loveliest  songs: 

"  John  Anderson  my  Jo,  John, 
We  clamb  the  hill  thegither. 
And  monie  a  canty  day,  John, 
We've  had  wi'  ane  anither; 
Now  we  maun  totter  down,  John, 
And  hand  in  hand  we'll  go. 
And  sleep  thegither  at  the  foot, 
John  Anderson  my  Jo." 

Here  is  a  protest  with  the  breath  and  passion  of 
humanity  in  it  against  the  naturalistic  simplifica- 
tion of  our  existence. 

To  this  must  be  added  the  protest  of  religion. 
*  Life  of  Tennyson,  vol.  ii,  p.  427. 


236      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEBY 

Religion  means  man's  interest  in  the  Infinite,  his 
hunger  for  the  love  of  the  Eternal,  his  worship  of 
the  Absolute  worth;  it  means  man's  vision  into 
the  pure,  sacred  Fire  at  the  centre  of  all  being, 
and  his  high  resolve  coming  from  this  vision,  to 
make  his  pilgrimage  through  time  "in  honor  and 
clean  mirth."  These  protests  of  beauty,  truth, 
love  and  the  sense  of  God  utterly  wreck  the  na- 
turalistic interpretation  of  our  existence.  Such 
an  interpretation  empties  that  existence  of  all 
those  things  that  make  it  worth  while,  reduces  it 
to  a  remnant  and  a  mean  remnant  at  that.'  We 
must  not  confuse  the  land  and  the  sea;  the  land 
supplies  the  bed  for  the  ocean,  but  the  ocean  is 
distinct  from  the  land,  having  tides  of  its  own, 
the  "wild  wave's  play"  that  belongs  to  it;  it  has 
a  life  peculiar  to  itself  and  a  freedom.  So  it  is 
with  Spirit  in  its  bodily  organism. 

There  is  the  other  grave  error  to  which  indeed 
we  are  not  now  so  much  exposed  as  men  of  former 
days,  the  error  of  a  one-sided  spirituality.  Unless 
I  misread  the  signs  of  the  times  the  danger  here 
is  remote;  still  certain  ideals  continue  to  allure  in 
this  direction.  Those  who  found  sainthood  upon 
ignorance  of  the  animal  substructure  of  human 
existence  are  unwise.  Life  is  insecure  when  it  is 
lived  in  disregard  of  the  animal;  all  the  tides  in 
the  animal  world  rise  and  fall  in  human  hearts 
and  he  is  among  the  silliest  and  weakest  who 


THE  DUALISM  IN  MAN  237 

thinks  he  is  pious  and  strong  when  he  is  merely 
shutting  his  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  brute  in 
him  is  large  and  terrible.  Then,  too,  there  is  the 
idea  of  sainthood  by  seclusion  from  the  world. 
The  only  persons  for  whom  there  is  legitimate 
seclusion  from  the  activities  of  the  world  are  the 
sick,  the  disabled,  the  incompetent,  and  they 
only  till  they  recover.  What  is  a  human  being 
without  a  home,  his  own,  or  at  least  the  home 
from  which  he  has  come?  What  is  a  home  that 
does  not  play  into  other  homes,  thus  creating 
sympathies  and  promoting  activities  wide  as  the 
world?  I  recall  how  I  revolted  in  my  youth  at 
the  idea  of  a  saint.  I  think  I  never  met  a  saint 
in  my  life  with  whom  I  cared  to  spend  an  hour. 
There  are  a  few  saints  in  history,  like  St.  Francis, 
whom  I  love;  there  are  many  who  are  labelled 
saints  whom  the  name  does  not  jfit.  The  popu- 
lar idea  of  a  saint  seems  to  be  a  ghostly  creature, 
anaemic,  something  like  tepid  water,  one  with 
nothing  positive  in  his  human  endowment,  in- 
capable of  magnificent  rage,  who  carries  no  guns 
that  strike  terror  to  the  hearts  of  evil-doers, 
whose  broadsides  are  not  even  puffs  of  smoke  in 
the  terrible  battle  with  unrighteousness,  whose 
nature,  in  no  way,  represents  the  great  world  of 
men.  The  abstract,  purely  spiritual  life  is,  for  a 
human  being,  an  impossibility.  Our  Maker  has 
taken  the  highest  in  the  universe  and  the  lowest 


238     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

—  mind  and  matter  —  and  constituted  man  of 
both.  We  return,  therefore,  from  these  errors 
to  recognize  ourselves  as  we  are,  body  and  soul, 
animal  and  man. 

II 

This  dualism  in  man  sets  the  problem  of  man's 
life.  That  problem  is  to  unify  this  discordant 
existence  through  the  vision  and  experience  of 
the  good.  The  object  of  all  impulse,  and  all  will, 
is  the  good.  No  will  could  be  moved  were  there 
not  an  object  in  view  conceived  as  good.  One 
rises  in  the  morning,  goes  to  work,  returns  from 
business,  meets  his  friends,  dines  out,  spends  the 
evening  at  the  theatre  or  club,  attends  church  on 
Sunday,  because  the  object  in  each  case  appears, 
on  the  whole,  desirable,  that  is,  it  appears  as  a 
good.  Normal  men  eat  and  drink  not  only  under 
the  category  of  necessity  but  also  under  the  cate- 
gory of  the  good.  As  member  of  a  family,  as  part- 
ner in  a  business  concern,  as  a  citizen,  as  a  being 
with  social  sympathies  and  intellectual  tasks,  as 
a  religious  person,  all  that  one  does,  one  does  be- 
cause it  seems  to  one  good.  Everywhere  and  al- 
ways the  vision  of  the  good  moves  the  will;  in- 
deed so  clear  is  this  that  it  is  inconceivable  that  it 
should  be  otherwise. 

At  first  sight  this  idea  of  good  seems  to  provide 
a  swift  and  easy  escape  from  our  human  dualism, 


THE  DUALISM  IN  MAN  239 

and  surely  we  find  here  the  reasonable  hope  of  the 
ultimate  mortal  unity  of  the  soul  and  of  society. 
Still  the  hope  must  be,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  a 
deferred  hope.  We  very  soon  discover  that  there 
are  two  kinds  of  good;  there  is  good  apparent  and 
there  is  good  essential.  There  is  that  which  is 
good  for  a  small  part  of  our  nature  and  good  only 
for  a  brief  period.  This  good  aggravates  the 
schism  between  the  senses  and  the  soul,  and  be- 
sides, brings  among  other  woes  bitter  disappoint- 
ment. Here  the  Garden  of  Eden  story  is  a  clear 
example.  The  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was  fair 
and  good  for  food;  it  so  appeared  and  the  fruit  so 
tasted.  But  the  tree  and  its  fruit  were  good  only 
for  sense;  it  brought  the  consciousness  of  schism 
in  a  moral  nature  bound  to  set  reason  above  ap- 
petite, bound  to  keep  faith  with  the  moral  ideal 
of  life.  It  brought  the  sense  of  disunion  and  it 
issued  in  bitter  disappointment;  it  was  therefore 
good  apparent  and  not  good  essential. 

Strong  drink  is  a  good;  so  it  appears,  so  it 
tastes  to  those  who  like  it.  Later  the  illusion  be- 
comes evident.  Devotion  to  this  good  breaks 
down  health,  muddles  the  intellect,  destroys 
character,  separates  a  man  from  his  best  friends, 
from  selfrespect  and  growth  in  the  confidence  and 
esteem  of  worthy  persons.  This  apparent  good  is 
at  last  seen  to  be  an  essential  evil.  Thus  it  holds 
of  the  egoistic  life  in  general;  it  seems  good,  but  it 


240      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

will  not  cover  the  whole  personal  sphere,  it  will 
not  work  socially;  finally  it  is  pronounced  bad 
and  an  effort  made  to  abandon  it. 

It  is  experience  that  sets  in  two  eternally  oppo- 
site categories,  good  apparent  and  good  essential. 
Antecedent  to  all  experience  all  desirable  things 
are  good.  Feed  your  child  on  sweet  wine;  it  seems 
good;  feed  it  on  poison  done  up  in  sugar  and  again 
it  appears  good.  To  Judas  those  thirty  pieces  of 
silver  seemed  a  kind  of  summum  bonum;  it  was 
his  later  experience  that  disillusioned  him.  Peter 
denies  his  Master  because  it  seemed  good  so  to 
do;  later  he  is  unable  to  endure  his  own  denial. 
Intemperance,  sensuality,  unfair  dealing,  dis- 
honesty, all  lust  and  all  shame,  all  greed,  all 
cowardice  and  all  treason  have  their  psychology 
here.  They  appeal  to  the  will  as  good;  later  they 
are  shown  to  be  nothing  but  evil  under  the  form 
of  good.  All  human  experience  thus  becomes  a 
revelation  of  the  difference  between  moral  ap- 
pearance and  reality. 

We  here  discover  where  the  idea  of  right  comes 
in,  and  what  it  means.  I  said  the  will  is  moved  by 
the  vision  of  good  and  by  nothing  else.  I  said 
that  experience  reveals  two  kinds  of  goods,  one 
illusory,  the  other  real.  Good  is  thus  the  goal,  the 
ultimate  end  of  all  choice,  the  ideal  satisfaction  of 
the  soul,  and  right  is  the  way  to  this  ideal  satis- 
faction; it  is  therefore  the  sense  of  loyalty  to  es- 


THE  DUALISM  IN  MAN  241 

sential,  eternal  good,  and  as  such  becomes  essen- 
tial and  eternal  right.  You  have  the  vision  of  a 
perfect  geometrical  figure,  a  circle  or  a  triangle; 
you  wish  to  see  this  in  a  drawing  or  in  material 
form.  There  is  only  one  way  to  draw  or  embody 
that  geometrical  figure,  and  that  is  to  draw  or 
build,  as  nearly  as  possible,  in  absolute  fidelity  to 
your  vision.  There  is  the  vision  of  the  end,  and 
the  end  is  the  good;  the  right  is  loyalty  to  the 
good  in  the  act  or  series  of  acts  whereby  the  good 
is  to  be  attained.  Paul's  experience  illumines 
both  ideas:  "I  count  not  myself  yet  to  have  ap- 
prehended, but  one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  the 
things  which  are  behind  and  stretching  forward 
to  the  things  which  are  before  I  press  toward  the 
goal  unto  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in 
Christ  Jesus."  Here  the  idea  of  the  goal,  as  the 
infinite  good,  is  imperfectly  apprehended;  the 
movement  of  the  intellect  is  ever  toward  a  richer 
and  more  adequate  vision  of  the  ultimate  satis- 
faction, and  the  idea  of  the  right  means  loyalty 
in  this  high  and  endless  pursuit  to  the  indefinable 
greatness  of  the  end  pursued. 

Conscience  as  a  complex  of  desire  and  reason 
has  to  do  both  with  good  and  right;  it  has  to  clear 
of  mistake  and  illusion  the  idea  of  the  good,  and 
it  has  to  disclose  the  solemn  authority  of  the  idea 
of  right.  Conscience  has  therefore  come,  and 
justly,  to  represent  the  end  and  the  means  of  the 


242     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

spiritual  life,  that  which  should  be  our  human 
goal,  and  that  which  should  be  the  chosen  path 
thereto.  Conscience  means  in  the  conscientious 
man  the  sovereignty  in  thought  of  the  idea  of 
good  essential,  and  the  sovereignty  in  purpose  of 
the  idea  of  right. 

Conscience,  first  of  all,  reflects  the  dualism  in 
man's  nature;  "the  good  which  I  would  I  do  not: 
but  the  evil  which  I  would  not  that  I  practise." 
Here  is  the  terrible  antinomy  lying  deep  in  man's 
being,  and  brought  to  full  view  by  the  conscience. 
Conscience  has  been  called  a  superstition,  a 
maligner  of  life,  an  enemy  of  human  comfort,  a 
baseless  and  yet  baleful  importation  of  the  dis- 
credited theologian.  The  fact  is  conscience  is  first 
of  all  a  mirror  held  up  to  nature;  it  simply  an- 
nounces what  it  finds  in  the  psychology  of  man. 
Two  goods  are  reflected  in  it,  one  an  illusion  and 
the  other  real.  Two  states  of  will  are  mirrored  in 
it,  one  a  will  toward  illusory  good,  and  the  other 
a  will  toward  real  good.  In  addition  it  announces 
the  habit  of  life  and  the  moral  strength  or  weak- 
ness that  has  issued  from  that  habit.  Conscience 
is  not  to  blame ;  it  reads  the  record  and  in  normal 
man  reports  what  it  finds. 

If  it  is  true,  as  it  surely  is,  that  conscience 
brings  to  light  the  tremendous  contradiction  in 
man,  it  provides  for  the  elimination  of  this  con- 
tradiction.  It  is  the  physician  who  discovers  the 


THE  DUALISM  IN  MAN  243 

nature  of  the  disease  from  which  we  suffer,  and  it 
is  the  wise  practitioner  who  prescribes  the  way 
out  of  the  malady  into  health.  We  should  be  una- 
ware of  the  schism  in  our  heart  but  for  con- 
science, and  should  sink  to  the  life  of  the  brute, 
without  however  the  content  of  the  brute,  rather 
with  the  undefined  discontent  of  a  high  nature, 
cheated  of  its  legitimate  satisfactions.  Without 
conscience  we  should  never  know  our  need  of 
reform,  nor  should  we  have  those  programmes  of 
life,  those  far-shining  ideals  that  are  the  moving 
forces  in  our  higher  human  world.  A  man  in  a 
street  car  pretty  nearly  drunk,  yet  with  the  sense 
of  chivalry  in  him,  rose  to  give  his  seat  to  a  lady 
who  had  just  entered  the  car.  Before  the  lady 
could  take  the  proffered  seat,  another  person 
took  it.  Our  intoxicated  friend  protested.  The 
answer  he  got  was  this:  ''You  are  drunk,  keep 
still."  Our  friend  rejoined:  "I  know  I  am  drunk, 
but  I  will  get  over  it;  you  are  a  hog  and  you  will 
never  get  over  it."  In  the  first  person  conscience 
told  him  the  fact  and  held  before  him  a  better 
future;  in  the  second  person  there  was  no  con- 
science and  he  was,  without  knowing  it,  not  only 
a  beast,  but  an  incorrigible  beast.  The  surgeon 
and  his  knife  frighten  the  child;  they  may  be 
painful  to  the  wise  man  who  knows  his  need,  yet 
are  they  welcome  as  the  promise  of  the  new  and 
better  future. 


244     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 


III 

The  problem  before  us  here  is  eonian  and  it 
cannot  be  solved  by  speculation.  The  intellect 
defines,  the  will  solves  our  problem;  such  must  be 
our  sure  conclusion.  The  intellect  defines  our 
tasks,  as  in  Kipling's  lines: 

"We  are  very  slightly  changed 
From  the  semi-apes  who  ranged 
India's  prehistoric  clay; 
"Whoso  drew  the  longest  bow 
Ran  his  brother  down,  you  know. 
As  we  run  men  down  today. 

*'Doub,"  the  first  of  all  his  race. 
Met  the  Mammoth  face  to  face. 
On  the  lake  or  in  the  cave. 
Stole  the  steadiest  canoe. 
Ate  the  quarry  others  slew. 
Died  —  and  took  the  finest  grave. 

*'  When  they  scratched  the  reindeer-bone. 
Someone  made  the  sketch  his  own. 
Filched  it  from  the  artist  —  then. 
Even  in  those  early  days, 
Won  a  simple  Viceroy's  praise 
Through  the  toil  of  other  men." 

The  eonian  selfishness  is  thus  defined;  the  defin- 
ing faculty  can  do  no  more,  the  creative  will  must 
declare  war  upon  this  ancient  iniquity  and  "lay 
the  proud  usurper  low."  In  this  task  of  the  moral 
will  there  opens  the  vista  of  one  of  the  chief  glo- 


THE  DUALISM  IN  MAN  245 

ries  of  human  life,  the  persistent,  undiscourage- 
able  endeavor  to  ehminate  the  contradiction  in 
experience,  overcome  the  duahsm,  and  estabhsh 
in  the  soul  a  spiritual  unity,  a  divine  peace. 
Three  great  orders  of  experience  confront  one 
here.  There  is  the  unity  of  the  United  States 
before  the  war;  there  is  the  tremendous  national 
dualism  that  followed  the  attack  upon  Fort 
Sumter;  there  is  the  glory  of  the  unity  re-estab- 
lished upon  the  field  of  Appomattox  where  a 
valiant  and  great  foe  laid  down  his  arms.  In 
between  Fort  Sumter  and  Appomattox  there  is 
the  glory  of  the  vast,  bloody,  often  defeated,  and 
yet  on  the  whole,  victorious  struggle  to  wear 
down  the  dualism  in  the  national  heart.  Some 
day  the  man  of  genius  will  come  with  eyes  to  read 
the  moral  grandeur  of  those  four  intermediate 
years,  and  with  the  gift  of  expression  to  put  be- 
fore the  world  this  epic  of  blood  and  tears,  this 
agony  and  bloody  sweat  that  eventually  issued  in 
American  re-union.  In  the  individual  over  the 
wide  world  there  is  a  similar  conflict.  In  youth 
nature  breaks  into  contradiction;  the  animal  is  on 
one  side  and  the  man  on  the  other.  The  issue  is 
joined  and  the  great  conflict  goes  on  in  the  depths 
of  life,  unseen  save  by  the  Eternal  spirit.  Noth- 
ing appeals  with  greater  power  to  the  moral  imag- 
ination than  this  campaign  against  personal  dis- 
honor, lust  and  lies.    It  is  the  fight  of  intrinsic 


246      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

worth  against  intrinsic  evil;  it  concerns  the  things 
of  utmost  moment  for  personal  character;  it  is  a 
struggle  that  underlies  and  conditions  the  entire 
breadth  of  society.  Those  true  souls  that  oppose 
the  domination  of  the  animal  in  them,  that  give 
it  battle,  that  will  accept  no  defeat  as  final,  that 
hang  round  it  in  ever-greatening  moral  power  and 
passion,  that  wear  it  down  and  drive  it  from 
shelter  to  shelter  till  they  can  see  in  the  future  its 
annihilation,  are  doing  great  things  for  them- 
selves; they  are  winning  one  of  the  chief  glories 
for  the  character  of  man;  they  are  running  under 
the  social  whole  like  subterranean  streams,  giving 
beauty  and  fruitfulness  to  the  human  fellowship 
that  rests  upon  them. 

The  call  here  is  for  the  destruction  of  nothing 
native  to  man;  the  call  is  for  order;  it  is  to  put 
everything  in  its  place,  to  bring  in  and  make 
availing  a  just  perspective  of  values;  it  is  to  set 
one's  soul  in  order,  one's  house,  business,  politics; 
the  call  is,  in  addition,  to  do  what  one  may  to  put 
the  entire  human  world  in  order.  Realization  of 
the  immanent  divine  plan,  through  the  new  dis- 
cipline to  which  the  heterogeneous  forces  of  our 
nature  is  subjected,  is  the  great  end.  As  in  the 
mason's  spirit  level,  when  the  level  is  really  at- 
tained, the  eye  reveals  the  fact,  so  when  our 
nature  is  brought  into  order,  the  immanent  di- 
vine idea  looks  up  into  our  faces.   We  eliminate 


THE  DUALISM  IN  MAN  247 

nothing  essential  to  nature;  we  crush  nothing; 
we  simply  place  in  subjection  the  inferior,  and  in 
authority  the  superior.  The  higher  in  man  should 
rule,  and  the  lower  should  serve,  as  in  the  David 
of  Michael  Angelo,  the  idea  of  the  great  artist  is 
sovereign  in  the  marble  that  it  has  subdued  to  its 
own  high  uses. 

Here  is  the  chief  glory  of  life;  here  man  refuses 
to  be  the  victim  of  the  senses,  the  slave  of  lust, 
the  servant  of  dishonor,  the  hireling  of  wild  ego- 
ism, the  bondman  of  space  and  time;  here  he 
asserts  his  nature  as  spirit,  lifts  up  his  eyes  to 
the  splendor  of  things  intrinsic,  —  love,  truth, 
beauty,  strength;  aspires  to  a  growing  share  in 
the  best  life  of  his  kind,  guards  his  birthright  as 
the  child  of  the  Infinite,  surveys  all  goods,  all 
gains,  all  goals,  all  worlds  as  the  pilgrim  of  Eter- 
nity, and  claims  for  himself  the  transcendent  life. 

On  this  level  we  get  a  glimpse  of  the  meaning  of 
temptation  against  w^hich  men  protest  and  over 
which  they  repine.  Even  great  souls  among  all 
the  greater  peoples  of  mankind  have  entertained 
the  vision  of  a  world  from  which  was  eliminated 
all  strife,  all  struggle,  all  pain.  Thus  one  great 
soul  sings:  *'No  lion  shall  be  there,  nor  any  raven- 
ous beast  shall  go  up  thereon,  it  shall  not  be 
found  there;  but  the  redeemed  shall  walk  there. 
And  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord  shall  return  and 
come  to  Zion  with  songs  and  everlasting  joy  upon 


248     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

their  heads,  they  shall  obtain  joy  and  gladness, 
and  sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee  away."  Another 
great  spirit  sings:  "They  shall  hunger  no  more, 
neither  thirst  any  more,  neither  shall  the  sun 
strike  upon  them,  nor  any  heat.  For  the  Lamb 
which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  shall  be  their 
shepherd  and  shall  lead  them  unto  fountains  of 
waters  of  life,  and  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears 
from  their  eyes."  These  souls  have  lived  in  the 
vision  of  an  ideal  world,  whether  in  the  future  of 
this  earthly  existence  or  in  the  sphere  of  eter- 
nity; and  in  the  name  of  this  vision  in  the  great 
crises  of  life  they  have  sung  to  one  another: 
**  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye  my  people,  saith  your 
God,  speak  ye  comfortably  to  Jerusalem,  and  cry 
unto  her  that  her  warfare  is  accomplished,  that 
her  iniquity  is  pardoned,  that  she  hath  received 
of  the  Lord's  hand  double  for  all  her  sins." 

This  strifeless,  painless,  untroubled,  ideal 
world  is  not  the  world  in  which  men  are  living 
to-day.  Our  world  is  a  world  of  struggle  and  of 
ceaseless,  serious  pressure.  And  we  are  led  to  ask 
for  the  meaning  of  this  order  in  which  we  exist, 
and  especially  for  the  meaning  of  that  section  of 
the  universal  struggle  to  which  we  give  the  name 
of  moral  trial  —  temptation.  It  may  appear  that 
our  ideals  of  the  untroubled  existence  are  pre- 
mature, that  the  veritable  ideal  world  is  in  the 
world  of  conflict. 


THE  DUALISM  IN  MAN  249 

There  is  the  temptation  of  Jesus.  Why  was  he 
tempted?  He  was  in  a  world  at  war  with  the  in- 
tegrity of  his  spirit,  and  with  powers  to  which 
that  world  could  appeal,  and  therefore,  his  temp- 
tation was  inevitable.  He  was  tempted  in  the 
regions  of  appetite,  self-confidence,  ambition; 
there  was  his  field  of  battle.  The  immoral  world 
had  bribes  to  offer;  these  bribes  met  with  his  sure 
and  withering  scorn.  He  passed  through  his  trial 
into  victory,  and  thenceforth,  his  integrity  was 
his  integrity  established.  In  his  hour  of  victory 
over  evil  the  Messiahship  of  Jesus  burst  into 
bloom.  Here  was  the  great  initial  victory  that 
qualified  and  commissioned  him  to  undertake 
the  mighty  task  of  laying  the  foundations  for  the 
spiritual  victory  of  mankind. 

It  may  be  said  that  in  the  mind  of  youth  every- 
where, all  that  is  distinctive,  original,  prophetic, 
begins  to  show  itself  in  the  first  great  moral 
struggle.  If  the  young  man  is  true  to  himself, 
then  the  greatest  things  will  rise  in  his  nature, 
and  for  him  and  his  time  there  will  issue  a  sur- 
prise of  power;  within  him  there  will  be  the  lyric 
of  victory,  and  without  the  melody  of  service. 
A  dissolute  youth  means  a  vast  deduction  of 
power;  genius  has  suffered  here  beyond  all  com- 
putation. Genius  is,  fundamentally,  sensitive- 
ness to  reality,  sympathy,  insight,  love;  and  the 
immoral  life  ''petrifies  the  feeling,"  puts  out  the 


250      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

eyes  of  the  mind,  or  veils  them  in  the  presence  of 
the  divine  side  of  things.  All  genius  is  dependent 
for  its  integrity  upon  morality;  no  soul  can  see 
and  feel,  as  it  might  have  seen  and  felt,  if  that 
soul  has  become  the  slave  of  the  brute.  The  con- 
servation of  genius,  like  the  conservation  of  tal- 
ent, is  in  the  victorious  campaign  of  the  man 
against  the  animal. 

IV 

The  ideal  of  unity  initiates  this  grand  conflict 
in  the  soul  and  sustains  it  in  all  times  of  its  dis- 
tress. Wise  men  follow  it  as  they  did  the  star 
which  they  saw  in  the  East;  it  leads  now  as  then 
toward  the  Highest;  it  still  travels  over  and 
shines  upon  a  divided  and  troubled  world;  the 
consolation  it  offers  is  light  and  a  far-off  but  glo- 
rious goal. 

'  The  unattained  is  the  source  of  all  movement 
in  the  human  spirit,  that  is  to  say  man  is  a  being 
of  ideals.  These  ideals  are  mental  images  of  the 
good  which  he  desires.  A  great  idealist  has  an 
intellect  like  the  midnight  sky,  splendid  images 
in  great  array  alluring  from  afar.  Man  *' looks 
before  and  after  and  pines  for  what  is  not";  this 
is  one  of  his  chief  distinctions.  Here  in  this  pres- 
ent moment,  year,  century  he  has  no  continuing 
city;  he  is  forever  seeking  the  absolute  satisfac- 
tion, the  city  that  hath  foundations.  The  Nicene 


THE  DUALISM  IN  MAN  251 

Creed  expresses  well,  and  in  its  high  manner,  this 
idealism  inseparable  from  the  spiritual  man: 
"We  look  for  the  life  of  the  world  to  come."  We 
regard  time  as  a  gymnastic  and  say  with  Para- 
celsus: "I  go  to  prove  my  soul."  We  reflect  on 
the  divine  discontent  in  our  life  and  say  with  one 
for  whom  the  infinite  mystery  was  illuminated 
only  at  a  very  few  points,  "He  hath  set  eternity 
in  their  heart."  ^    • 

Man's  ideals  are  as  numerous  as  his  interests; 
they  are  economic,  domestic,  social,  political, 
scientific,  artistic,  philosophic,  religious.  Men 
seek  Eldorado;  they  cherish  visions  of  the  home 
they  mean  to  found;  they  dream  of  the  ideal 
friend  who  has  not  arrived;  they  look  for  a  better 
nation.  There  is  the  scientific  ideal,  —  a  cosmos 
understood;  the  artistic  ideal  —  the  union  of 
perfect  idea  and  perfect  form;  the  philosophic 
ideal  —  a  universe  intelligible  and  in  its  idea  and 
law  comprehended;  there  is  the  religious  ideal  — 
life  in  God  perfected  and  at  peace. 

All  these  separate  ideals  are  united  in  the 
vision  of  the  highest  good,  and  the  form  for  this 
good  is  freedom.  The  substance  of  the  supremely 
desirable  is  the  good  and  the  essential  form  is 
freedom.  We  must  be  free  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of 
our  toil,  free  to  enjoy  the  home  that  we  found, 
free  to  meet  our  fellowmen  on  equal  terms,  free 
1  Eccles.  3:11. 


252     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEEY 

in  our  citizenship,  in  our  art,  science,  philosophy, 
and  in  our  reHgion;  but  in  each  case  the  substance 
is  the  good;  the  form  under  which  the  good  is 
enjoyed  is  freedom. 

Freedom  means  an  unimpeded  existence,  unim- 
peded either  from  without  or  from  within.  It  has 
therefore  a  personal  aspect  and  a  social.  It  con- 
cerns the  bodily  life  and  means  without  sick- 
ness, without  pain,  continuous,  victorious  health. 
Aristotle's  refrain  comes  to  one  here :  no  man  can 
energize  continuously,  which  means  that  we  live 
under  restriction  and  that  our  freedom  is  limited 
by  bodily  conditions.  This  freedom  concerns  the 
intellect;  ignorance  is  bondage;  freedom  is  possi- 
ble only  to  knowledge  and  insight.  The  will  is 
involved,  of  course,  in  the  question  of  freedom. 
Sin,  mistake,  desire,  insubordination  of  the  pas- 
sions, the  wanton  rule  of  the  irrational,  the  power 
of  evil  habit,  all  are  forms  of  bondage.  Social 
conditions  and  influences  complicate  our  ques- 
tion. The  pressure  of  unrighteous  custom,  the 
power  of  majorities,  the  force  of  unjust  law  are 
obstructions  in  the  path  of  freedom.  The  death 
of  Socrates  is  one  of  the  monumental  examples  of 
the  denial  by  the  state  of  freedom  to  the  indi- 
vidual citizen. 

Freedom  is  the  image  in  man  of  the  life  in  God. 
He  alone  is  free;  he  alone  is  absolutely  uncon- 
strained from  without,  wholly  unconstrained  by 


THE  DUALISM  IN  MAN  253 

evil  from  within;  he  alone  is  unimpeded  in  his 
inward  activity,  unimpeded  in  his  self-expression 
in  reason  and  in  love.  The  best  insight  and  en- 
deavor of  the  highest  human  being  look  toward 
the  future.  Paul's  comment  upon  his  own  life 
applies  to  all:  "hindered  hitherto."  In  God  free- 
dom is  real;  in  man  it  is  an  ideal. 

Yet  as  an  ideal  it  is  precious  and  is  the  spring  of 
all  progress.  The  elimination  of  pain  is  the  ideal 
alike  of  the  medical  profession  and  the  prophet  of 
religion:  ** neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain."  ^ 
The  elimination  of  ignorance  upon  all  vital  con- 
cerns is  the  ideal  of  education.  The  elimination  of 
sin,  the  discipline  of  desire,  the  exposure  of  mere 
apparent  good  is  the  ideal  of  all  serious  moral 
endeavor.  The  life  unimpeded  from  without  and 
from  within  is  the  ideal  of  religion;  *' Your  peace 
shall  flow  like  a  river  and  your  righteousness 
shall  be  as  the  waves  of  the  sea."  The  vision  of 
the  seer  is  the  faith  of  the  religious  soul,  the  Holy 
City  descending  from  above,  God's  unity  invad- 
ing man's  duality,  gradually  abolishing  it,  and 
prophesying  complete  victory  at  last.  The  King- 
dom of  God  is  the  ideal  that  allures  and  inspires 
the  religious  man.  It  does  not  mean  a  monism 
that  like  the  lean  kine  in  Pharaoh's  dream  de- 
vours the  whole  world  of  difference ;  nor  a  plural- 
ism that  implies  a  mere  congregation  of  the  dis- 
1  Rev.  21 :  4. 


254     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

persion,  a  mere  mental  aggregate  of  existences 
essentially  unrelated  and  fugitive.  It  means  the 
reign  of  the  moral  unity  of  God  in  the  multitudi- 
nous worlds  of  living  souls  who  have  overcome 
their  dualism  and  won  the  freedom  of  the  city  of 
God. 


CHAPTER  X 

MORAL   EVIL  AND   RACIAL  HOPE 
I 

Somehow  the  faith  has  taken  firm  hold  of  the 
Christian  mind  of  this  age  that  in  the  courses  of 
time,  in  this  world,  good  shall  defeat  evil.  Our 
faith  today  is  faith  in  the  ultimate  sovereignty 
of  truth  over  falsehood,  right  over  wrong,  good 
over  evil.  What  justification  in  the  experience 
and  capacity  of  mankind  there  is  for  this  belief 
we  seldom  pause  to  consider.  We  take  the 
ground  that  the  highest  interests  of  man  ought 
to  triumph  and  we  declare  that  what  should  be 
all- triumphant  shall  be.  An  imperious  and  splen- 
did instinct  is  thus  at  the  heart  of  the  best  faith 
of  our  time.  It  advances  upon  all  the  continents 
of  wickedness  as  the  tide  advances,  joyous,  mul- 
titudinous, irresistible  in  its  sense  of  the  Infinite 
within  and  behind  it. 

The  tide  itself  has  limits  and  there  are  doubt- 
less limits  to  our  mightiest  faith.  Instincts  are 
feelings  that  have  been  installed  in  the  individual 
mind  by  the  operation  of  collective  reason;  they 
must  be  refreshed  and  renewed  from  this  collec- 
tive reason.  Otherwise  like  cut  flowers  they  will 
wither  and  die.    We  are  not  called  upon  to  sur- 


256      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

render  our  great  faith  when  we  consult  the  wisest 
minds  of  the  world;  we  are,  I  think,  chastened 
and  elevated  in  our  belief.  From  even  the  brief- 
est remembrance  of  ancient  wisdom  we  return  to 
clear  our  moral  outlook  for  man  of  inherent  im- 
possibilities. 

The  two  greatest  among  Greek  philosophers 
divided  the  universe  into  things  perishable  and 
things  imperishable.  Man  they  classed  with  both 
orders  of  existence;  his  human  world  was  in  part 
temporal  and  in  part  eternal.  Perfection  for  man 
or  for  the  society  of  men  in  time  was  no  part  of 
their  vision.  Indeed  time  seemed  to  them  insig- 
nificant when  set  in  the  presence  of  eternity. 
There  are  few  passages  in  the  literature  of  man- 
kind more  impressive  than  those  words  in  the 
second  chapter  of  the  sixth  book  of  the  "  Repub- 
lic *'  in  which  Plato  unfolds  his  idea  of  the  human 
soul  as  the  child  of  eternity.  The  words  in  which 
he  exalts  man  throw  into  littleness  man's  earthly 
environment;  the  Infinite  that  Plato  claims  as  the 
field  and  home  of  man's  spirit  almost  cancels  the 
importance  of  the  entire  world  of  time.  What 
was  supposed  to  be  the  whole  range  of  reality  is 
shown  to  be  only  a  meagre,  arbitrary  circle  in  the 
infinite  expanses  of  spiritual  being. 

The  Hebrew  prophets  are  the  exponents  of 
an  inspiring  social  and  political  ideal.  Yet  their 
sense  of  the  tragedy  of  existence  is  so  deep,  their 


MORAL  EVIL  AND  RACIAL  HOPE      257 

openness  to  the  facts  of  life  is  so  constant  that 
they  are  compelled  again  and  again  to  readjust 
their  glowing  vision  of  the  future  of  their  race  to 
the  moral  breakdown  and  disaster  of  their  age. 
Their  general  attitude  of  mind  is  like  an  April 
day,  —  sun-bursts  of  splendor  and  hope  quenched 
in  universal  gloom;  again  the  gloom  is  broken  into 
fragments  by  the  victorious  light. 

What  was  the  attitude  of  Jesus  here?  I  believe 
that  he  looked  forward  to  a  long  development  of 
his  kingdom  in  time,  and  to  a  substantial  triumph 
of  good  over  evil.  So  I  understand  the  Parables  of 
the  Mustard  Seed  and  the  Leaven.  The  Parable 
of  the  Leaven  might  be  pressed  into  teaching  the 
complete  victory  of  good  over  evil,  —  "till  the 
whole  is  leavened,"  till  society  as  a  whole  is  pene- 
trated, changed,  transformed;  so  long  must  the 
Christian  work.  But  we  must  not  forget  that  the 
last  vision  that  Jesus  leaves  with  us  is  of  a  world 
in  time  divided,  and  standing  thus  at  the  judg- 
ment of  eternity.  Universal  righteousness  in  time 
is  no  clear  and  sure  prediction  of  Jesus;  his  king- 
dom if  it  is  ever  to  be  completed,  if  it  is  ever  to 
rule  over  all,  must  have  a  programme  in  the 
world  beyond  time. 

We  must  not  forget  the  teachings  of  common 
reason.  There  was  a  time  when  this  planet  did 
not  exist;  there  will  come  a  time  when  it  will  have 
ceased  to  exist.   Our  world  is  divisible  into  things 


258     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

perishable  and  things  imperishable;  our  cam- 
paign against  moral  evil  and  woe  is  for  time 
and  eternity.  We  do  not  expect  complete  victory 
here;  nor  do  we  believe  that  this  earth  is  the  cradle 
and  the  grave  of  mankind.  We  hold  our  faith  in 
a  great  future  for  our  race  chastened  and  exalted 
by  the  august  sense  of  eternity. 

II 

John  Bunyan  understood  life  deeply  because 
he  was  a  great  human  being.  He  knew  that  in 
himself  there  was  represented  the  moral  conflict 
of  the  ages.  He  knew  that  for  every  serious  indi- 
vidual soul  there  is,  at  some  point  of  its  prog- 
ress, a  Doubting  Castle  kept  by  Giant  Despair, 
and  he  knew  that  for  society  in  its  struggle  and 
faith  there  is  the  same  castle  and  the  same  keeper. 

The  sense  of  moral  bankruptcy  overwhelms  at 
times  every  great  soul.  Paul  with  his  despairing 
cry,  "O  wretched  man  that  I  am,"  represents 
many;  Augustine  in  his  idealism  and  slavery  is 
the  type  of  multitudes;  Luther  at  his  task  with  his 
conscious  incompetence  is  another  representative 
nature.  In  the  moral  despair  of  the  individual 
there  is  suggested  an  immeasurable  social  col- 
lapse. Generations  of  human  beings  surrender 
the  social  hope  of  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth 
wherein  dwelleth  righteousness,  because  they  see 
no  force  in  existence  equal  to  the  realization  of 


MORAL  EVIL  AND  RACIAL  HOPE      259 

this  moral  dream.  This  Inferno  in  which  all  high 
hope  of  better  things  for  poor  suffering  souls  is 
abandoned  is  the  home  of  uncounted  millions  of 
our  race.  Mankind  has  to  this  extent  suffered  a 
moral  breakdown;  the  root  of  this  despair  is  the 
fact  that  there  seem  to  be  no  resources  equal  to 
our  social  and  racial  need. 

When  we  look  closely  at  the  subject  the 
sources  of  this  despair  seem  to  be  mainly  two. 
The  first  source  would  seem  to  be  trust  in  ideas 
without  action.  When  we  imagine  that  the 
dream  is  enough,  the  vision  sufficient  in  itself, 
the  ideal  of  a  new  humanity  irresistible,  Chris- 
tian faith  all-triumphant  apart  from  the  agony 
and  bloody  sweat  of  the  moral  process,  we  are 
doomed  to  disappointment.  Here  is  the  original 
difficulty,  —  the  substitution  of  idea  for  action, 
the  assignment  of  the  whole  task  of  life  to  the 
intellect,  the  profound  and  disastrous  elimination 
of  will.  Already  in  idea  the  forest  is  broken  into 
a  thousand  lovely  clearings;  already  in  vision 
homesteads  are  built  and  the  wheat  in  every 
field  ripens  under  the  benign  sunlight;  already  in 
dream  untold  wealth  and  comfort  are  here,  but 
in  point  of  fact  not  an  axe  has  been  lifted,  not  an 
effort  been  made,  not  a  single  incursion  upon  the 
primeval  wilderness  has  been  undertaken,  not 
one  sign  of  the  victory  of  man  over  nature  exists, 
and  in  spite  of  the  dreamer's  joy  want  and  misery 


260      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

are  eating  the  heart  out  of  the  whole  despairing 
settlement. 

The  second  main  source  of  our  moral  despair  is 
in  the  deepening  sense  of  the  brutal  forces  in  man. 
During  the  last  three  light-hearted  decades,  we 
have  been  smoking  the  opium  pipe  of  evolution, 
telling  the  world  how  far  it  has  risen,  chiefly  by 
its  own  force,  from  the  depths  in  which  it  began, 
describing  the  speed  by  which  it  has  mounted 
under  our  sage  and  dreamy  eyes,  and  prophesy- 
ing of  its  complete  ascension  in  the  near  and 
sweet  bye  and  bye.  Recent  events  have  broken 
the  opium  pipe  and  dispelled  the  delusion.  Cos- 
mic evolution,  unsupplemented  by  the  austerity 
of  the  moral  process  is  a  vain  ground  of  hope. 
The  world  as  a  series  of  facts  is  once  more  gain- 
ing solemn  recognition.  We  face  again  the  name- 
less eonian  shame  of  our  cities,  the  alcohol  curse, 
the  economic  hardness  of  heart,  the  plague  of  the 
idle  rich,  the  shallowness  and  insincerity  of  the 
religious  classes,  the  inhumanity  of  man  to  man, 
and  the  occasional  outbreak,  as  at  present,  of  the 
wild  beast  in  our  race.  As  at  sea  in  a  storm  one 
will  sometimes  awaken  to  the  fact  that  only  an 
inch  or  two  of  iron  shell  are  between  him  and  the 
wild  flood  so  one  is  now  and  then  made  aware  of 
the  thinness  of  the  civilized  wall  that  protects 
all  that  men  hold  dear  from  the  immeasurable 
fury  of  the  surrounding  brutality. 


MORAL  EVIL  AND  RACIAL  HOPE      261 

Let  us  make  haste  to  add  that  in  the  statement 
of  the  problem,  we  must  not  exaggerate  or  lose 
sight  of  mitigating  incidentals.  We  must  apply 
Punch's  humor  to  the  situation.  To  Mike,  home 
from  the  front,  battered,  broken,  half-dead,  a 
benevolent  idler  remarks,  "This  is  a  terrible 
war.'*  "  It  is  indeed,"  Mike  replies,  *'but  it  is  far 
better  than  no  warre  at  all!"  We  must  not  lose 
the  sense  of  human  heroism.  Nor  must  we  forget 
the  opposite  fact  that  the  sufferings  of  men  do  not 
always  weigh  heavily  upon  others.  A  Boston 
fireman,  to  whom  I  had  given  for  years  the  tick- 
ets that  I  had  bought  to  the  firemen's  ball  con- 
fidentially informed  me  on  one  occasion  that  his 
wife  had  received  a  great  fright  on  my  account. 
Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon  had  died,  and  the  newspaper 
head-line  had  told  the  sad  story  in  ten  thousand 
homes.  The  fireman's  wife  with  quick  sympathy 
thought  of  me,  and  exclaimed :  "  Dr.  Gordon  is 
dead;  no  ball  for  me  this  year."  Again,  altruism 
which  seems  to  us  absolutely  essential  to  a  happy 
life,  does  not  at  all  times  appear  a  necessity. 
"My  mother  told  me  a  falsehood,"  said  one  of 
the  small  boys  in  my  parish;  "she  said,  *It  is 
more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.'  Acting  on 
that  principle  I  put  one  cent  into  the  Salvation 
Army  box  and  I  have  been  miserable  ever  since." 
Once  more  the  essentiality  of  mind  to  human 
happiness  I  have  recently  found  strangely  con- 


262     ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

tradicted.  A  faithful  servant  who  after  partial 
recovery  from  a  stroke  of  apoplexy,  upon  being 
questioned  by  me  made  the  confession  that  he 
slept  better  than  he  had  ever  slept,  that  he  ate 
better  and  that  he  enjoyed  his  life  better.  He 
added,  "My  mind  is  gone  but  I  don't  miss  it." 
These  incidents  will  serve  to  modify  extreme 
statements,  and  will  perhaps  give  us  a  sense  of 
the  sanity  and  hope  essential  even  in  the  discus- 
sion of  the  sources  of  moral  despair.  I  can  recall 
no  great  humanist  or  humorist  who  fell  a  per- 
manent victim  of  despair.  Cervantes  rises  before 
one  in  his  prison  assuring  one  that  in  the  black 
tragedy  of  the  world  there  are  ever-flowing  foun- 
tains of  mirth. 

Ill 

For  the  despair  that  comes  from  moral  inertia 
and  insincerity  the  remedy  is  at  hand.  The 
question  of  insincerity  is  the  simpler  of  the  two. 
No  man  is  sincere  who  is  unwilling  to  back  his 
dream  with  his  deed.  The  person  who  is  full  of 
talk  about  his  heavenly  vision  and  who  with- 
holds his  obedience  from  that  vision  is  an  idle 
chatterer.  The  Christian  church  is  cursed  with 
this  order  of  persons  and  they  must  be  shamed 
into  loyalty  to  their  faith.  Grant  tells  us  that  in 
the  sorest  struggle  of  the  great  battle  of  Shiloh 
twenty-five  hundred  Union  soldiers  ran  from  the 


MORAL  EVIL  AND  RACIAL  HOPE      263 

field  and  lay  down  in  a  valley  beyond  the  range 
of  the  enemy's  guns.  These  men,  when  they 
faced  their  commander  and  comrades,  were  so 
ashamed  of  themselves  that  they  begged  for  an- 
other chance  to  stand  in  the  firing  line,  and  they 
vowed  that  never  again  would  they  show  the 
white  feather,  and  they  kept  their  vow.  Like  the 
Priest  and  the  Levite  in  the  parable  of  Jesus, 
many  find  religion  good  for  the  walk  from  Jeru- 
salem to  Jericho,  good  for  the  happy  excitements 
at  both  ends  of  the  journey,  but  good  for  nothing 
in  an  emergency  calling  for  the  exercise  of  an 
adequate  humanity. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  insincerity  is  one  of 
the  cowardliest  of  qualities,  that  it  can  be  scorned 
out  of  existence.  By  the  recoil  a  new  moral  force 
will  be  set  free  sufficient  for  many  a  hard  task  for 
many  a  day.  Even  in  those  few  cases  where  men 
prefer  appearance  to  reality  and  become  expert 
in  every  art  of  disguise  and  hypocrisy,  in  the  end 
they  are  discovered.  The  sign  of  the  sneak  is 
branded  upon  their  faces;  they  cringe  and  fawn 
like  whipped  dogs;  they  reveal  the  intolerable 
misery  of  the  path  of  unreality  and  cunning  over 
which  they  have  crawled.  Goneril  and  Regan  are 
able  with  their  pretence  to  blind  their  poor  old 
father  Lear,  while  the  truth  of  Cordelia  becomes 
an  offence  to  him.  Sincerity  here  fails,  insincerity 
succeeds;  in  the  beginnings  of  the  drama  of  exist- 


264      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

ence  it  is  often  so.  The  final  issues  tell  another 
story.  The  soul  that  could  "love  and  be  silent'* 
came  at  last  to  full  recognition  as  a  "soul  in 
bliss,"  and  ministering  to  one  "bound  upon  a 
wheel  of  fire";  the  successful  hypocrites  vanish 
at  last  in  darkness  and  infamy.  They  remain 
only  as  witnesses  against  themselves,  as  forces 
creative  of  the  life  that  they  despised  and  de- 
structive of  that  which  they  pursued.  Judas  with 
the  kiss,  apparently  of  friendship,  but  really  of 
treason,  seems  for  a  moment  closer  to  the  heart 
of  Jesus  than  the  disciple  who  leaned  on  his 
bosom  at  supper.  The  contrast  between  them 
soon  came  to  light;  one  allures  by  what  he  loved, 
the  other  creates  recoil  by  his  dishonor. 

If  the  source  of  disloyalty  to  the  ideal  is  not 
insincerity  but  moral  weakness,  the  force  of 
shame  is  still  availing.  There  is  nothing  clearer 
in  the  history  of  religious  struggle  than  that 
moral  weakness  brings  woe  and  woe  ultimately 
creates  the  force  that  conquers  the  weakness. 
This  point  will  emerge  in  our  discussion  again  in 
another  connection;  I  here  call  attention  to  this 
sign  of  hope  in  the  heart  of  distress.  The  men 
who  have  become  moral  wrecks  under  the  ap- 
peals to  lust  and  drink  and  dishonor  do  not  tell 
the  greater  part  of  the  epic  of  the  soul.  That 
greater  part  is  in  the  hidden  record  of  tens  of 
thousands  who,  mortified  by  their  weakness  in 


MORAL  EVIL  AND  RACIAL  HOPE      265 

the  presence  of  evil  appeal,  and  smitten  with 
shame  as  they  looked  upon  their  inward  dishonor, 
rose  into  strength  through  their  miseries  till  they 
sang,  as  with  the  voice  of  the  hurricane, 

**So  by  my  woes  to  be 
Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee 
Nearer  to  Thee." 

So  long  as  the  denial  of  Jesus  issues,  as  in  Peter's 
typical  case,  in  sorrow,  and  the  sorrow  creates  a 
new  moral  habit,  we  shall  not  count  the  weakness 
of  man  stronger  than  the  divine  constitution  of 
his  being.  The  Sisyphus  stone  that  the  doomed 
toiler  could  never  land  on  the  hill-top  is  the  sym- 
bol of  much  in  the  moral  struggle  of  mankind;  the 
lessening  burden  till  it  vanishes  altogether  on  the 
shoulders  of  Bunyan's  Pilgrim  is  typical  of  much 
more. 

IV 

We  are  now  ready  to  face  our  second  source  of 
despair  —  the  increasing  sense  of  the  brutality  of 
mankind.  There  are  few  who  have  not,  at  some 
period  in  their  existence,  sympathized  with  the 
person  who  said,  "The  more  I  know  of  men  the 
better  I  think  of  dogs."  We  are  tempted  to  go 
further.  If  anything  in  the  records  of  the  Indian 
jungle  can  surpass  the  record  of  the  violation  of 
Belgium,  I,  for  one,  have  never  heard  of  it.  Face 
to  face  with  this  brutality,  and  worse  than  bru- 


266      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

tality,  working  in  our  civilization,  cancelling,  at 
times,  every  instinct  of  manhood,  and  making  the 
struggles  and  hopes  of  the  moral  process  in  his- 
tory seem  utter  vanity,  we  must  retreat  upon  the 
deepest  things  of  our  faith,  reform  and  re-equip 
life  there  for  a  more  resolute  advance.  Nothing 
less  than  a  general  muster  of  the  greater  moral  in- 
sights and  forces  of  the  world  can  meet  the  need 
of  the  times. 

We  must  renew  our  vision  of  the  great  princi- 
ple at  which  I  have  already  hinted  and  which  I 
now  state,  —  the  self-destructive  force  of  evil.  All 
lines  of  conduct,  all  kinds  of  behavior  are  at  first 
neutral.  Whichever  courses  are  chosen  are 
adopted  in  the  belief  that  they  will  increase  the 
quantity  or  exalt  the  character  of  life.  On  any 
level  of  existence  none  but  madmen  commit  sui- 
cide. That  life  is  good,  that  this  good  is  increased 
by  the  increase  of  the  quantity  and  the  improve- 
ment of  the  quality  of  life,  that  the  supreme  good 
is  life  carried  to  its  utmost  in  magnitude  and  its 
highest  in  worth  is  an  axiom  written  in  the  heart 
of  normal  man  everywhere.  Courses  of  action 
are  adjudged  better  or  worse,  good  or  evil,  pre- 
cisely as  they  seem  to  accord  with  or  contradict 
this  aboriginal  intuition  of  life.  Much  mistake  is 
mixed  with  the  human  judgment,  much  deceit  is 
worn  by  the  appeals  that  compete  for  human 
choice.  Essential  good  often  appears  as  essential 


MOBAL  EVIL  AND  RACIAL  HOPE      267 

evil  as  when  the  rich  young  ruler  turns  away 
from  Jesus,  essential  evil  often  seems  good  as  in 
the  Garden  of  Eden  story  the  forbidden  fruit  ap- 
peared fair  to  the  eye  and  good  for  food.  The 
moral  process  has  been  plagued  from  the  begin- 
ning by  this  compound  of  inward  error  and  out- 
ward cheat.  In  the  grand  campaign,  again  and 
again,  enemies  have  been  regarded  as  friends,  and 
friends  have  been  regarded  as  enemies;  the  ob- 
jects of  sense  have  never  lost  their  power  of  steal- 
ing the  livery  of  heaven.  Satan  disguised  as  an 
angel  of  light,  and  in  this  character  winning  his 
way  to  the  friendship  of  men,  is  a  symbol  of  one 
of  the  saddest  chapters  in  human  history.  The 
judgment  is  so  errant  and  the  disguise  is  so  subtle 
that  all  of  the  people  have  been  fooled  some  of 
the  time. 

Here  comes  into  view  the  great  saving  princi- 
ple in  the  human  soul.  What  diminishes  and  de- 
grades life  is  finally  seen  to  be  evil;  what  enlarges 
and  exalts  life  is  ultimately  known  to  be  good. 
We  learn  obedience  through  suffering.  The 
friends  and  foes  of  man  in  the  environment,  in 
foods  and  drinks,  in  types  of  human  being,  in 
courses  of  action,  in  ideals,  in  beliefs,  are  sooner 
or  later,  in  the  light  of  experience,  clearly  seen 
and  solemnly  judged  and  set  apart  as  far  as  the 
east  is  from  the  west.  That  under  certain  condi- 
tions fire  burns,  that  water  drowns,  that  poison 


268     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

kills,  that  enmity  is  foolish  and  that  tribal  war 
means  extermination,  become  axiomatic.  These 
instances  are  typical  of  that  segregation  into  op- 
posite camps  of  the  bitter  and  the  sweet,  the 
deadly  and  the  benign  in  human  experience  and 
the  causes  of  these  experiences.  Nothing  can  run 
counter  all  the  time  to  the  highest  interests  of 
life  without  disclosing  its  deadly  character,  with- 
out creating  in  the  soul  of  man  protest  and  recoil, 
without  organizing  against  itself  the  mightiest 
energies  of  our  being. 

Through  experience  of  good  and  evil  the  moral 
life  of  man  began;  through  experience  of  good  and 
evil  the  moral  life  of  the  race  has  advanced; 
through  experience  of  moral  suffering  and  glad- 
ness two  worlds  of  objects  and  causes  have  rolled 
into  distinct  and  everlasting  opposition  —  the 
world  of  human  good  and  the  world  of  human 
evil.  This  general  determination  of  all  things 
into  one  or  the  other  of  these  two  worlds  is  an 
astonishing  achievement;  it  is  besides  one  of  the 
solidest  grounds  for  hope  in  progressive  enlight- 
enment and  finer  discrimination.  The  illumina- 
tion of  experience  is  the  ultimate  teacher;  from  its 
wisdom  there  can  be  no  appeal.  Its  reasonings 
are  not  in  words  and  propositions  but  in  sorrow 
and  tears;  its  judgments  are  not  primarily  in 
books  but  in  the  agony  and  bloody  sweat  of 
human  lives. 


MORAL  EVIL  AND  BACIAL  HOPE      2G9 

What  Grant  felt  when  on  a  critical  day  he  said, 
"Let  us  have  peace/'  his  experience  as  a  soldier 
conditioned;  Sherman's  famous  remark  that 
"War  is  hell"  was  coined  by  one  who  had  gone 
through  that  inferno.  There  is  a  process  going 
on  among  all  races  in  all  parts  of  the  wide  world 
in  which  there  is  an  increasing  repudiation,  in 
the  name  of  life,  of  lust,  cruelty,  dishonor,  selfish- 
ness, inhumanity.  We  are  familiar  with  the  sa- 
cred tradition  in  the  case  of  individual  souls. 
The  tradition  is  wider  than  we  know;  it  is  the 
record  of  the  continuous  emancipation  of  man- 
kind from  one  evil  after  another  in  the  long 
courses  of  time,  and  these  evils  when  assembled 
are  the  witnesses  of  an  immeasurable  moral  vic- 
tory. Human  beings,  on  a  wide  survey,  can  no 
longer  do  what  they  have  done.  Even  in  the 
horror  of  war  the  atrocious  things  that  men  are 
doing  are  generating  more  and  more  the  force 
that  shall  eventually  end  war.  The  race  is  even 
now,  in  the  presence  of  the  continental  eruption 
of  the  brute  in  man,  silently  gathering  in  a  great 
purpose  to  annihilate  this  horror  of  human  his- 
tory. Evil  in  its  most  gigantic  form  is  calling  into 
existence  in  the  heart  of  the  world  the  force  that 
shall  destroy  it.  Evil  under  a  thousand  disguises 
seeks  the  blessing  and  the  suffrage  of  human  be- 
ings; good  disfigured,  and  apparently  an  alien 
in  the  land,  often  seems  to  invite  rejection  and 


270      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

curses.  Mankind  under  the  Divine  illumina- 
tion of  experience  will  more  and  more  repeat  the 
great  repudiation  and  confession  of  the  prophet 
Baalam : 

*'How  shall  I  curse  whom  God  hath  not  cursed? 
Or  how  shall  I  bless  whom  God  hath  not  blessed?" 

The  selfdestructive  nature  of  evil  in  human 
experience  is  the  negative  side  of  the  presence  in 
man  of  the  Eternal  Spirit.  The  basal  idea  of  our 
religion  is  that  man  is  made  for  honor  and  not 
dishonor,  righteousness  and  not  iniquity.  The 
great  saying  of  Augustine  expresses  the  law  of 
our  being  both  as  essentially  alien  to  evil  and  as 
essentially  akin  to  God:  "Thou  hast  made  us  for 
Thyself  and  we  are  restless  till  we  repose  in 
Thee."  The  Parable  of  the  Lost  Son  is  the  great 
example  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  of  the  principle 
of  the  selfdestructive  nature  of  evil  rising  up  into 
the  highest  religious  meaning.  The  younger  son 
with  his  portion  of  his  father's  goods  goes  into 
the  egoistic  life  with  passionate  intensity  and 
with  the  utmost  confidence  that  the  kind  of  ex- 
perience he  has  chosen  is  good  and  not  evil.  The 
experiment  is  pushed  to  the  farthest  limit  of  en- 
durance. At  every  step  forward  in  this  egoistic 
course  the  evidence  that  he  is  mistaken  increases; 
as  he  perseveres,  the  demonstration  becomes 
plainer  and  more  cogent;  as  he  still  elects  to  dis- 
regard the  vital  argument,  it  continues  to  ascend 


MORAL  EVIL  AND  RACIAL  HOPE      271 

till,  like  the  hurricane  in  the  path  of  the  ship,  he 
can  no  longer  face  it  and  live.  Reason  in  the 
courses  of  experience  is  too  strong  to  allow  his 
delusion  to  endure;  the  great  reversal  comes, 
what  was  good  is  seen  to  be  evil,  what  seemed 
evil  is  now  known  as  good.  "And  when  he  came 
to  himself  he  said  ...  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my 
Father."  The  profoundest  philosophy  of  man's 
being  and  history  lies  in  that  great  Parable,  the 
insight  that  makes  final  despair  of  the  victory 
of  good  over  evil  impossible. 

We  need  a  far  more  serious  system  of  moral 
education,  as  a  proof  of  our  sympathy  with  the 
idea  of  the  selfdestructive  nature  of  evil,  as  a 
sign  of  our  faith  in  the  Deity  resident  in  the  spir- 
itual nature  of  man,  and  as  an  assertion  of  that 
freedom  whereby  we  may  accelerate  the  victory 
of  good  over  evil.  When  Greece  was  going  to 
wreck  the  cry  of  Plato  was  for  a  nobler  and  com- 
pleter education.  In  the  succeeding  generation 
Aristotle  became  the  servant  of  the  same  national 
need.  That  these  two  great  educators  failed  to 
save  their  nation  does  not  mean  that  we  should 
fail  to  note  their  wisdom.  The  adequate  educa- 
tion has  perhaps  never  been  even  outlined;  the 
best  that  we  have  has  never  been  adequately 
applied.  It  is,  however,  clear  as  sunlight  that 
human  lives  must  be  shaped  from  the  earliest 
years  under  the  influence  of  the  highest  moral 


272     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

ideals,  if  we  are  to  make  headway  against  eco- 
nomic evil,  social  evil,  the  evil  of  inverted  values, 
insane  perspective,  the  illusions  of  the  egoistic 
life  and  the  disguised  honors  of  inhumanity. 

No  revival,  however  sincere  and  noble,  can 
be  more  than  the  merest  beginning.  Nothing  is 
finer  in  the  career  of  Dwight  L.  Moody  than  his 
final  complete  subordination  of  evangelism  to 
education.  Intermittent  influence  is  nearly  use- 
less; all  substitutes  for  the  steady  reign  and  un- 
broken sovereignty  of  Christian  ideas  from  life's 
beginning  to  its  close  are  utterly  disappointing; 
only  the  energy  of  the  truth  in  which  God  lives, 
seriously  and  constantly  applied,  can  give  us  the 
character  in  men  and  women  for  which  the  world 
waits.  Play,  learning,  working,  love,  marriage, 
parenthood,  business,  citizenship,  our  whole 
earthly  life  must  come  for  interpretation  to  the 
Christian  ideal  as  the  infinite  perfecting  grace  of 
our  human  world. 

1  We  need  a  new  appreciation  of  the  value  of 
Jesus'at  this  point.  His  claim  upon  the  reverence 
of  mankind  has  here  its  sovereign  vindication. 
His  value  as  a  maker  of  character,  as  a  creator  of 
the  highest  kind  of  human  being  carries  in  it  a 
mighty  appeal.  What  we  owe  to  him  here,  slack 
and  unresponsive  as  we  are,  is  unspeakable.  His 
work  for  children,  youth,  serious  men  and  wo- 
men, the  moral  leaders  and  prophets  of  our  world 


MORAL  EVIL  AND  RACIAL  HOPE      273 

is  immeasurable.  Our  poor  bewildered  eyes  can- 
not fail  to  see  our  whole  higher  human  world  as 
it  moves  in  the  radiance  of  his  teaching  and  spirit. 
Yet  more.  He  is  not  now  a  glorious  abstraction, 
a  manufactured  article  of  theology,  doing  logical 
duty  mainly  among  doubtful  propositions;  he 
is  the  sovereign  human  force,  near  to  man,  infi- 
nitely attractive  in  his  true  character,  the  creator 
of  the  completest  life  possible  for  man.  In  his 
first  disciples  he  turned  peasants  into  prophets, 
fishermen  into  world-teachers  for  all  time.  That  is 
the  index  of  his  greatest  achievement. 

The  capacity  for  hero  worship  is  perhaps  the 
second  best  force  in  our  being,  and  it  is  unsur- 
passed in  setting  free  the  highest  in  man,  the 
power  to  worship  God.  The  worship  of  God  is 
the  adoration  of  the  Absolute  worth  and  he  who 
lives  in  ever-deepening  admiration  of  the  moral 
heroes  of  the  race  is  on  the  way  to  the  beatific 
vision.  What  Washington  and  Lincoln  are  to  this 
nation  with  its  ideals  and  hopes  wise  men  know; 
what  the  prophets,  apostles,  martyrs,  saints,  the 
glorious  servants  of  our  kind  might  mean  for 
the  renewal  in  successive  generations  of  the 
Christian  ideal  and  obligation  our  surest  leaders 
begin  to  dream.  Old  Plutarch  and  his  "  Lives  "  set 
an  example  which  has  yet  to  be  followed.  Our 
wealth  in  heroes  is  undeveloped  and  unused. 
When  our  living  leaders  surround  our  existence 


274     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

from  first  to  last  with  a  wise  selection  of  the  ma- 
jestic dead  our  human  world  will  awaken  from 
its  torpor  like  the  earth  in  spring.  And  as  the 
hero  of  all  highest  heroes,  as  worthiest  among  the 
worthy,  we  must  present  as  the  supreme  creative 
force  in  men's  soul  the  character  of  Jesus. 

Our  faith  in  God,  the  God  and  Father  of  Jesus 
Christ,  as  Paul  described  him,  immanent  and  yet 
transcendent,  whose  transcendence  is  the  Infinite 
moral  Reserve  of  the  universe,  must  of  course  be 
our  ultimate  confidence.  Our  world  belongs  to 
him,  and  we  honor  him  best  when  we  live  in  the 
sense  of  his  responsibility  for  the  race  that  he  has 
made.  Our  faith  in  God  must  be  for  today  and 
for  all  time.  We  must  supplicate  him  to  work 
through  all  the  ideal  energies  of  the  race,  to  aug- 
ment them  without  ceasing,  and  to  renew  in  them 
the  sense  of  his  presence  with  men.  We  must  not 
forget  the  demand  of  a  New  England  theologian 
face  to  face  with  the  reign  of  iniquity,  "Give  the 
Almighty  time."  The  campaign  is  eonian;  where 
and  when  it  will  end  we  know  not.  As  in  the 
Platonic  myth  philosophy  takes  refuge  in  poetry 
so  in  our  fight  with  the  beast  we  follow  the  sure 
rational  principles  of  our  faith  into  the  eternal 
world,  and  in  imagination,  we  anticipate  the  sov- 
ereignty of  those  principles  there.  The  vision  of 
a  universe  clear  of  all  sin,  cleansed  from  every 
stain  of  moral  evil,  taken  back  as  a  perfected 


MORAL  EVIL  AND  RACIAL  HOPE      275 

harmony  into  the  heart  of  the  Absolute  sym- 
phony, is  for  sincere  souls  the  greatest  militant 
faith  that  human  beings  can  hold.  Such  a  faith 
covers  the  struggle  in  time,  in  the  name  of  Eter- 
nity, with  inextinguishable  hope. 

This  sense  of  Eternity  is  our  strength  as  it 
works  in  the  selfdestructive  nature  of  evil,  de- 
claring with  old  Ben  Jonson,  "the  devil  is  an 
ass";  as  it  manifests  itself  in  the  Deity  alive  in 
its  constitution  and  in  the  higher  experience  of 
mankind;  as  it  organizes  itself  in  nobler  forms  of 
education  and  sets  free  great  creative  instincts 
through  hero  worship;  as  it  becomes  light  and 
salvation  in  the  Lord  Jesus.  This  sense  of  Eter- 
nity is  our  ultimate  ground  of  victory;  here  we 
have  length  and  width  and  depth  of  vision;  here 
are  gathered  for  completer  organization  the  moral 
forces  and  capacities  of  man;  here  operates  and 
here  stands  in  reserve  the  Eternal  spirit.  In  this 
faith  we  call  to  one  another  in  the  darkest  hours 
of  the  fight: 

"Say  not  the  struggle  nought  availeth. 
The  labor  and  the  wounds  are  vain. 
The  enemy  faints  not,  nor  faileth, 
And  as  things  have  been  things  remain. 

*'If  hopes  were  dupes,  fears  may  be  liars; 
It  may  be  in  yon  smoke  coneeal'd. 
Your  comrades  chase  e'en  now  the  iBliers, 
And,  but  for  you,  possess  the  field. 


276      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

**  For  while  the  tired  waves  vainly  breaking, 
Seem  here  no  painful  inch  to  gain, 
Far  back,  through  creeks  and  inlets  making, 
Comes  silent,  flooding  in,  the  main. 

"  And  not  by  eastern  windows  only 
When  daylight  comes,  comes  in  the  light, 
In  front,  the  sun  climbs  slow,  how  slowly. 
But  westward  look,  the  land  is  bright." 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE   MYSTERY   OF   REDEMPTION 
I 

The  mystery  of  redemption  has  two  aspects.  It 
is  a  mystery  that  our  human  world  should  run  off 
the  rails  and  wreck  itself,  that  it  should  act  again 
and  again  in  contempt  of  the  clear  moral  order 
of  the  universe  and  come  to  grief,  that  it  should 
repeatedly  undo  the  high  achievements  of  labori- 
ous centuries  and  reduce  itself  to  poverty,  impo- 
tence and  misery.  Why  should  human  beings 
thus  lapse  into  moral  insanity?  No  man  can 
adequately  say.  That  it  is  owing  to  a  volcanic 
eruption  of  the  irrational  part  of  our  nature  is 
clear;  that  sane  men  should  not  fortify  against 
this  irrationality,  as  reflected  in  the  ghastly  his- 
tory of  nations,  passes  all  understanding. 

It  is  a  mystery  that  when  human  beings  are 
recovered  from  their  folly,  while  they  are  in  one 
way  less  than  they  might  have  been,  in  another 
sense  they  are  vastly  more.  That  would  seem  to 
be  putting  a  prize  upon  evil-doing.  Shall  we  not 
continue  in  sin  that  grace  may  abound?  God 
forbid.  So  said  the  Christian  apostle;  so  instinc- 
tively say  we  all.  Yet  if  this  instinct  is  true,  why 
does  the  thoroughly  redeemed  sinner  rise,  so 


278      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEBY 

often,  to  such  heights  of  insight?  Why  does  he 
represent,  in  many  cases,  an  experience  so  rich 
and  transcendent?  Why  does  an  Augustine  re- 
main, when  his  theology  has  fallen  into  utter 
discredit,  a  permanent  leader  in  the  revolt  from 
sin,  a  permanent  inspirer  of  the  life  in  God,  an 
abiding,  and  an  inexpressible  value  for  piety?  ^ 

The  Apostle  Paul  not  only  felt  this  mystery  in 
his  teaching;  he  also  reflected  it  in  his  own  career. 
"For  ye  have  heard  of  my  manner  of  life  in  time 
past  in  the  Jews'  religion,  how  that  beyond  meas- 
ure I  persecuted  the  church  of  God  and  made 
havoc  of  it."  This  was  the  indictment  that  Paul 
drew  against  himself,  the  indictment  which  the 
entire  Christian  community  drew  against  him. 
He  became  an  unknown  horror  to  the  Churches 
of  Judea  till  his  great  change  came.  He  con- 
tinues, "And  I  was  still  unknown  by  face  unto 
the  churches  of  Judea  that  were  in  Christ:  but 
they  only  heard  say.  He  that  once  persecuted  us 
now  preacheth  the  faith  of  which  he  once  made 
havoc,  and  they  glorified  God  in  me."  ^  The 
error  and  the  fury  that  came  out  of  it,  gave  place 
to  the  insight,  the  rapt  devotion,  and  the  imperial 
service  that  issued  from  it.  It  is  difficult  to  resist 
the  conclusion  that  this  man  represents,  in  his 
redemption,  something  immeasurably  greater 
than  a  simple  return  to  the  right  path,  at  the 

1  Harnack's  History  of  Dogma,  vol.  7,  pp.  61-94  . 

2  Gal.  1 :  13,  22-24. 


THE  MYSTEBY  OF  REDEMPTION       279 

veritable  point  where  he  left  it.  There  are  in  him 
these  new  forces,  —  a  comprehension  of  human 
experience  impossible  for  him  till  now,  a  revolt 
from  the  savage  life  of  conventional  religion  un- 
der a  headway  that  can  never  slacken,  that  can 
never  be  broken,  an  emotional  wealth  in  his  at- 
tachment to  the  pure  Christian  ideal  of  inestima- 
ble worth,  an  energy  of  ethical  and  spiritual  pur- 
pose of  utmost  moment,  and  a  life  and  death 
dedication  to  the  highest  well-being  of  mankind 
unsurpassed  in  history.  Here  in  Paul,  the  great 
apostle  of  the  Christian  message,  is  the  mystery 
of  redemption. 

In  my  boyhood  there  lived  near  my  home,  a 
retired  Scottish  crofter.  This  retired  small  far- 
mer was  known  by  the  name  of  his  farm  or  croft 
—  Swelley.  He  was  about  eighty  years  of  age 
when  I  knew  him.  His  wife  was  dead;  his  chil- 
dren, a  goodly  number,  had  all  left  him  to  found 
homes  of  their  own,  leaving  the  old  man,  accord- 
ing to  the  bitter  custom  of  necessity,  absolutely 
alone.  He  was  a  musician,  famous  for  his  skill  in 
that  simple  community;  and  as  an  avocation  he 
had  learnt  to  make  violins.  He  had  a  score  or 
more  of  them  hanging  round  the  walls  of  his 
humble  cottage.  He  would  get  out  of  bed  at  mid- 
night, when  some  rare  melody  came  to  him,  that 
had  eluded  his  memory  during  the  day,  and  there 
alone,  with  only  the  stars  and  the  silent  universe 


280      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  I^IYSTERY 

watching  would  pour  forth  the  melody  on  his 
favorite  violin,  pouring  into  the  melody  the  full- 
ness of  his  years,  the  courage,  the  cheerfulness 
and  the  pathos  of  his  fine  old  heart. 

One  day,  so  the  old  man  told  me,  this  favorite 
violin  fell  from  his  hands  upon  the  hearthstone. 
It  was  broken  into  a  score  of  fragments.  He 
gathered  them  together  with  pious  tenderness, 
put  them  sorrowfully  away,  thinking  that  his 
beloved  violin  would  never  again  breathe  beauty 
and  song.  In  a  day  or  two  it  occurred  to  him  that 
the  violin  might  be  re-made.  He  undertook  the 
daring  task;  joined  piece  to  piece,  fragment  to 
fragment,  till  the  broken  instrument  was  whole 
and  entire.  He  laid  it  away  to  rest;  he  waited  till 
the  old  wounds  were  surely  healed;  at  last,  and  in 
due  time,  he  took  his  instrument,  restringed  and 
newly  tuned,  put  the  bow  upon  it,  played  into  it 
first  one  love  song  after  another,  played  through 
it  the  joy  of  the  redeemer,  and  to  his  amazement 
the  tone  and  voice  of  his  violin  were  inexpressibly 
deeper,  richer,  more  tender,  more  appealing  than 
the  violin  in  its  original  power.  That  is  the  fact 
in  the  life  of  the  redeemed  soul;  it  constitutes  the 
second  aspect  of  the  mystery  of  redemption. 

II 

The  mere  superficial  innovation,  and  the  essen- 
tially new  insight  differ  especially  in  this,  that 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  REDEMPTION       281 

while  the  innovation  cancels  the  worth  of  the 
historic  achievement  of  man,  and  begins  the  in- 
tellectual life  of  the  world  as  by  magic,  and  in 
contempt  of  the  past,  the  really  original  insight 
discovers  the  profounder  meaning  of  the  past  in 
its  own  light,  takes  up  into  itself  the  traditional 
belief,  carries  to  richer  fulfilments  the  immemo- 
rial ideas  of  faith,  and  gives  them  a  mightier  em- 
pire over  human  lives.  It  is  nearly  impossible  to 
believe,  that  what  the  greatest  minds  have  held 
to  be  true,  for  fifteen  hundred  years,  has  in  it 
absolutely  nothing  for  the  intellect  of  today. 
Such  disrespect  for  the  intellectual  toil  of  history 
is  nearly  equivalent  to  the  assertion  of  the  com- 
plete impotence  of  the  human  mind.  If  all  the 
earnest  and  great  seekers  after  truth  have  totally 
failed  in  their  search  what  hope  is  left  for  the 
thinker  of  today?  Is  he  not  like  the  proverbial 
farmer  who  sits  on  the  limb  of  the  tree  that  he  is 
sawing,  and  will  he  not  fall  to  the  earth  with  his 
own  success.^ 

Hegel  with  his  usual  profound  insight  sees  in 
the  Garden  of  Eden  story,  ^  the  imaginative  or 
mythical  form  for  a  universal  law  of  human  ex- 
perience. Incredible  as  history,  it  becomes  as 
poetry  the  symbol  of  truth.  The  innocence  of 
childhood,  of  the  individual  and  of  the  race,  is 
the  first  meaning  of  the  story.  Here  it  represents 
1  Logic,  p.  54.  Translation  by  W.  Wallace. 


282      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

human  life  at  harmony  with  itself,  a  harmony 
which  has  been  bestowed  upon  it  by  nature. 
Beautiful  and  fascinating  this  instinctive  har- 
mony cannot  last;  the  child,  whether  individual 
or  racial,  was  made  for  growth,  for  the  life  of  rea- 
son and  spirit.  At  this  point  the  early  inner  har- 
mony breaks  into  discords,  the  Garden  of  Eden 
has  become  an  impossible  residence;  the  expul- 
sion has  already  come  in  the  spirit,  it  must  come 
in  the  letter.  This  second  stage  in  human  experi- 
ence represents  both  a  fall  and  an  ascension.  The 
early  harmony  has  been  lost,  the  sweet  serenity 
of  childhood  has  fled,  and  the  grander  harmony 
achieved  by  the  human  soul  for  itself  has  not 
arrived.  Here  is  the  universal  loss,  the  universal 
fall  of  man,  a  fall  inevitable  in  the  unfolding  of 
existence,  and  noted,  and  perhaps  grieved  over 
by  every  fond  parent,  who  wished  to  keep  his 
children,  children  forever,  from  the  beginning  of 
time.  There  is,  however,  the  other  side;  life  has 
indeed  broken  out  of  pure  instinct  into  a  world  of 
discords.  This  is  the  preliminary  to  the  vision  of 
life's  task  and  life's  beatitude.  The  harmony 
that  has  vanished  was  the  harmony  of  instinct;  it 
was  a  gift.  The  harmony  that  hangs  aloft  over 
the  discordant  soul  of  the  world  is  a  harmony  to 
be  won  by  an  agony  and  a  bloody  sweat;  when 
won  it  will  be  won  as  the  achievement  of  the 
spirit,  it  will  represent  the  victory  of  the  reason 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  REDEMPTION       283 

in  whose  structure  and  movement  the  Eternal 
spirit  dwells. 

It  may  be  that  the  form  of  Hegel's  insight  will 
be  regarded,  by  a  profounder  study  of  ethical  psy- 
chology, as  itself  mythological.  It  may  be  that 
Hegel's  presentation  and  that  of  the  Biblical 
writer  will  both  be  classed  as  poetry.  This  will 
remain,  I  doubt  not,  that  Hegel  has  seen  into  the 
heart  of  man's  moral  being,  that  he  has  laid  hold 
upon  the  law  that  reigns  there,  that  he  has 
grasped  in  a  deep  and  sure  way  the  inevitable  loss 
and  gain  in  passing  from  childhood  to  youth.  He 
has  further  seen  that  provision  is  made  for  the 
idea  of  redemption  in  the  nature  of  all  men,  and 
that  the  application  of  this  idea  is  not  to  be  con- 
fined to  the  chief  of  sinners,  although  it  has  al- 
ways had  a  special  work  to  do  for  them.  In  view 
of  what  has  been  said,  a  fresh  introduction  to 
Adam  and  Eve,  and  the  story  of  the  Garden  of 
Eden,  would  seem  to  be  timely,  would  seem  to 
promise  greater  ethical  depth  in  current  religion. 
Adam  and  Eve  have  had  a  long  vacation;  upon 
new  terms  they  should  be  ready  for  a  new  and 
greater  service. 

The  ideas  of  education  and  redemption  are  not 
mutually  exclusive;  they  are  in  the  world  mutu- 
ally complementary.  The  idea  of  education  is 
valid  over  a  vast  area  of  life,  as  it  has  always  been 
seen  to  be.  "Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  in  which 


284     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

he  should  walk,  and  when  he  is  old  he  will  not 
depart  from  it.'*  ^  The  idea  of  education  is  valid 
over  the  whole  world  of  youth  that  has  kept 
truth  with  itself;  it  is  valid  for  those  who  have 
been  recovered  from  the  error  of  their  ways;  it  is 
an  idea  that  will  be  valid  to  all  eternity,  if  man's 
soul  shall  live  through  the  ages. 

The  idea  of  redemption  that  once  played  so 
large  a  part  in  the  Christian  mission  to  the  world, 
has  fallen  almost  entirely  out  of  the  great  drama 
of  the  spirit.  This  disuse  of  the  idea  of  redemp- 
tion has  brought  to  the  church  impoverishment 
in  its  insight  into  the  nature  of  man  and  shallow- 
ness in  its  vision  of  Jesus  and  in  its  vision  of  God. 
It  has  taken  the  energy  and  passion  out  of  the 
Church's  activity  and  hope. 

The  two  ideas  of  education  and  redemption  are 
present  in  Browning's  "Saul."  The  idea  of  life  as 
a  divine  education  is  represented  in  Browning's 
David;  he  has  been  trained  in  the  spirit  and  for 
the  uses  of  the  spirit.  The  idea  of  redemption 
appears,  as  the  force  that  goes  forth  to  recover 
the  fallen  Saul.  The  poem,  while  combining  the 
two  ideas,  is  clearly  a  poem  of  redemption. 

Before  we  attempt  to  analyze  the  poem  let  me 
call  attention  to  the  wide  field  occupied  by  the 

*  Proverbs  22 :  6,  For  a  view  opposite  to  this  see  An 
Autobiography,  C.  F.  Adams.  Mr.  Adams  is  "agin"  almost 
everything,  interestingly  so. 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  BEDEMPTION       285 

idea  of  redemption  today,  mainly  outside,  al- 
though not  without  the  aid  of  the  Christian 
Church.  The  treatment  of  the  insane  is  an  at- 
tempt to  recover  these  afflicted  minds  to  sanity; 
the  wisest  methods  used  with  the  intemperate 
try,  both  by  medical  and  moral  aid  to  redeem  the 
victims  of  this  curse;  the  ideal  in  the  manage- 
ment of  the  prisons  of  the  country  and  the  world, 
is  not  to  confirm  the  criminal  in  his  fierce  antag- 
onism against  society,  but  to  reclaim  him  to  citi- 
zenship. Where  this  ideal  is  in  operation  it  com- 
mands the  approval  of  the  highest  mind  of  the 
country;  where  it  does  not  operate,  it  is  felt  by  all 
right-minded  citizens  that  the  state  is  so  far  dis- 
graced. The  re-admission  to  business,  and  to  so- 
cial fellowship  of  the  erring  and  the  fallen,  while 
difficult  to  obtain,  is  not  altogether  impossible, 
and  so  far  gives  evidence  of  the  presence  in  soci- 
ety of  the  redemptive  idea.  Punishment  after  a 
time,  it  is  felt  and  truly,  becomes  persecution; 
besides,  it  is  foolish  economic  and  human  waste. 
Sometimes  the  godly  represent  the  lowest  tradi- 
tion here,  while  the  ungodly  represent  the  high- 
est. An  ex-convict  of  the  Massachusetts  State's 
Prison,  so  the  chaplain  told  me,  carried  with  him 
from  the  prison  the  very  best  certificate  as  to  his 
personal  character  and  his  ability  as  a  mechanic. 
This  man  went  first  of  all  to  the  machine  shops  of 
the  godly,  presented  his  certificate,  and  told  the 


286      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

story  of  his  crime  and  atonement.  In  every  case, 
the  godly  turned  him  down,  when  they  found 
that  he  was  an  ex-convict  of  the  State's  Prison. 
The  poor  man,  as  a  last  hope,  turned  to  the  un- 
godly. He  again  presented  his  certificate  and  was 
at  once  accepted.  Unwilling  to  conceal  his  sad 
secret  in  his  heart  he  added,  "  I  came  straight  to 
you  from  the  State's  Prison."  The  master  ma- 
chinist replied,  "I  don't  care  if  you  come  from 
hell,  if  only  you  will  do  my  work,  and  behave 
yourself  like  a  man  here  and  now."  The  poor 
man  said,  afterwards,  that  these  were  the  best 
words  that  he  had  ever  heard  since  he  left  the 
path  of  honor;  what  made  them  great  was  the 
possibility  of  redemption  that  shone  in  them. 

The  sublimest  thing  in  history  is  Jesus  and  his 
redeeming  passion.  He  came  to  seek  and  to  save 
the  lost,  to  redeem  from  sin  to  righteousness, 
from  moral  slavery  to  moral  freedom  and  joy. 
Jesus  the  redeemer  represents  God  the  redeemer; 
the  background  of  the  life  and  passion  of  Jesus  is 
the  Infinite  pity,  the  foreground  is  assembled 
humanity,  the  hopeful  subject  of  redemption. 
The  originality  of  Jesus  is,  perhaps,  best  seen 
from  this  point.  He  inaugurated  a  new  move- 
ment of  world-wide  scope  in  the  spiritual  life  of 
mankind;  his  disciples  drank  deeply  of  his  spirit, 
and  nothing  could  surpass  the  grandeur  of  those 
disciples  as  they  went  forth  to  buy  back  the  em- 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  REDEMPTION       287 

pire  lying  in  wickedness  to  man's  original  relation 
to  God  and  to  the  true  idea  of  human  good.  The 
spectacle  the  apostles  present  in  their  redemptive 
mission  is  magnificent.  Do  we  not  need  it  today? 
Look  at  Europe,  gone  astray  like  a  lost  sheep! 
Redemption  is  its  prof oundest  need,  from  war  and 
lust  and  horror  to  brotherhood  and  peace,  from  a 
crazed  and  infamous  notion  of  good  to  a  world  of 
lost  ideals,  from  the  life  and  manner  of  the  brute 
to  the  highway  to  humanity. 

Ill 

It  may  be  useful  to  continue  our  study  of  the 
mystery  of  redemption  by  an  examination  of 
Browning's  "Saul";  this  poem  will  be  found,  I 
think,  to  be  a  symbol  of  the  ideas  that  we  wish 
to  consider.  We  shall  see,  in  its  light,  the  essen- 
tials of  our  subject,  and  shall  be  less  likely  to  fall 
a  prey  to  the  incidental. 

Saul  is  one  of  the  simplest,  one  of  the  most 
artistic,  one  of  the  most  significant  spiritually 
of  Browning's  shorter  poems.  It  is  founded,  as 
every  one  will  recall,  upon  one  of  the  most  touch- 
ing and  picturesque  incidents  in  the  lives  of  Saul 
and  David.  Saul  was  the  first  king  of  Israel;  he 
came  to  the  kingdom  as  the  hope  of  the  nation; 
he  was  great  in  presence,  in  gifts,  in  promise,  and 
he  disappointed  everybody,  —  the  prophet,  Sam- 
uel, the  people  over  whom  he  ruled,  and  deepest 


288      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

and  saddest  of  all  himself.  This  produced  in  him 
as  the  years  went  on  recurrent  fits  of  profound 
melancholy,  called  by  the  Israelites  in  their  idiom 
possession  by  a  malign  spirit.  It  was  a  malady, 
described  by  men  today  as  a  fixed  idea.  Saul's 
disappointment  with  himself,  his  sense  of  failure 
fixed  itself  in  his  mind;  in  consequence  he  grew 
dark,  melancholy,  jealous  and  cruel. 

There  was  David.  The  youth  of  David  is  as 
beautiful  as  anything  in  the  history  of  Israel  or 
in  the  history  of  any  nation  that  ever  existed. 
The  ruddy  boy,  youngest  of  his  family,  counted 
as  nothing  by  his  father  and  his  brethren,  counted 
by  himself  as  nothing.  There  was  the  sweet  un- 
consciousness of  genius  in  his  early  life.  It  could 
be  seen  that  he  was  gifted,  that  he  was  brilliant; 
later  it  became  clear  that  he  was  a  genius  in 
political  organization  and  in  military  power.  He 
was  also  a  genius  in  music.  Saul,  in  his  fits  of 
depression,  had  sent  for  David  to  play  to  him 
and  he  called  the  king  out  of  his  moods  of  misery 
again  and  again,  once  at  considerable  peril  to 
himself  when  Saul  threw  a  javelin  at  him,  —  an 
unhappy  hint,  it  must  be  confessed,  as  to  the 
character  of  David's  art.  Saul  was,  however, 
mad,  and  Orpheus  himself  might  have  fared  no 
better. 

This  is  the  story  upon  which  Browning  founds 
his  poem,  "Saul."   It  is  a  universal  poem;  Saul 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  REDEMPTION       289 

and  David,  the  music  and  the  setting,  are  used 
for  the  purpose  of  bringing  out  universal  human 
traits.  The  poem  has  an  object  and  a  method 
and  a  result.  Of  these  I  shall  speak  later  and  at 
some  length.  Here  let  it  be  said  in  a  word  that 
the  object  in  view  is  the  salvation  of  the  soul;  the 
method  is  by  the  power  of  music  and  the  power 
of  speech  burdened  with  insight  and  tenderness. 
The  result  reached  is  the  great  discovery  that  the 
source  of  the  inexpressible  dignity  of  man  is  the 
indwelling  Spirit  of  God,  who  constitutes  man's 
spiritual  personality.  And,  again,  that  the  source 
of  the  saving  passion  in  one  man  for  another  is 
the  movement  within  him  of  the  Eternal  Spirit. 
It  is  Christ  within  you  the  hope  of  glory,  for  the 
sinner;  Christ  within  you  the  hope  of  victory, 
for  the  man  who  is  trying  to  save  a  soul. 

The  structure  of  the  poem  may  be  recalled  by 
the  following  rough  analysis.  Saul  is  stricken 
with  a  tremendous  fit  of  melancholy,  depression, 
gloom,  and  for  three  days  he  has  stood  rigid  as  a 
frozen  body  in  his  tent;  not  a  word  has  come 
from  him,  not  a  sound.  Abner,  his  great  captain 
and  friend,  knbwing  the  condition  of  the  king, 
sends  for  David  and  implores  him  to  do  his  ut- 
most to  bring  the  king  back  to  life.  David  leaps 
to  his  task  with  courage  and  love,  breaks  into  the 
inclosure,  into  the  dark,  where  the  king  stands 
in  silence,  —  a  silence  as  if  it  were  death;  speaks 


290     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

but  receives  no  answer,  takes  his  harp  and  first 
sings  of  the  charm  of  nature,  the  marvellous 
awakening,  healing  power  which  nature  has  over 
all;  the  mystic,  unfathomable  influence  which  na- 
ture wields  over  human  imagination  and  feeling. 

This  charm  of  nature  David  presents  through 
four  songs :  the  song  that  all  the  sheep  know,  the 
song  of  the  quails  that  come  to  him  as  if  he  were 
their  friend  when  they  hear  him  play,  the  song 
of  the  cricket,  the  song  of  the  jerboa  (half  bird 
and  half  mouse).  These  four  songs  are  simply 
four  ways  of  presenting  that  wonderful  influence 
which  nature  has  over  man's  mind,  man's  spirit, 
in  the  way  of  awakening,  healing,  uplifting. 

David  then  turns  from  nature  to  humanity;  he 
brings  forth  now  the  great  re-creative  appeal  that 
humanity  makes  to  the  individual  mind.  Here 
the  song  is  fivefold :  the  song  of  the  reaper  in  his 
gladness;  the  funeral  march  when  life  is  done  and 
praise  is  to  be  awarded  to  the  dead;  the  wedding 
march,  the  beginning  of  a  new  epoch  of  family  joy 
and  life;  the  social  song,  where  man  runs  to  man 
to  help  in  the  great  toil  of  civilization;  and  the 
final  song,  where  the  leaders  of  religion  intone  in 
the  sanctuary  the  great  song  of  man's  trust  in  the 
Infinite. 

These  two  appeals,  nature  and  humanity, 
David  by  his  harp  brings  to  bear  upon  the 
stricken  soul,  and  at  the  end  Saul  responds;  he 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  REDEMPTION       291 

groans,  —  the  first  sad  sign  of  life.  Nature  and 
humanity  in  their  appeal  have  extorted  from 
Saul  this  slight  response.  The  poem  goes  on  to 
recite  the  history  of  Saul;  the  dignity  of  his  man- 
hood, the  glory  of  his  military  career;  the  magni- 
ficence of  his  kingship;  further  it  dwells  upon  the 
permanence  of  his  influence.  Saul  must  die;  he 
will  be  buried  and  monuments  will  be  reared  to 
him  and  these  will  crumble,  but  the  first  king  of 
Israel,  in  all  the  deeds  that  he  has  done  to  elevate 
and  ennoble  his  people,  will  live  and  will  work 
in  succesive  generations  of  patriotic  men  and 
women;  he  will  be  a  creative  soul  in  the  life  of  his 
race  to  the  end.  This  vista  awakens  the  king  to 
the  heart,  brings  him  to  himself;  he  now  slides 
into  an  easy  posture  and  puts  his  hand  gently 
upon  the  hand  of  David. 

This  is,  however,  not  the  end.  After  David 
has  exhausted  the  power  of  music,  something 
more  and  other  is  needed,  —  insight  into  life. 
What  is  it  in  Saul  that  appeals  to  David  .^  What 
is  it  in  him  that  makes  him  love  Saul?  Why  is 
this  man  of  such  inexpressible  worth?  Why  is  it 
that  he  would  give  his  very  life  to  redeem  him? 
David  longs  to  bring  Saul  not  only  out  of  one 
evil  mood;  he  also  longs  to  put  in  place  of  Saul 
the  mistaken,  Saul  the  sinful,  the  failure,  Saul 
the  glorious  and  the  redeemed.  What  does  all 
this  mean? 


292     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

In  answer  to  his  question,  David  discovers  that 
God  has  constituted  that  soul  of  Saul's  in  his  own 
image,  spirit  answering  to  the  Divine  Spirit. 
Here  is  Saul's  worth.  David  further  discovers 
that  this  saving  passion  in  himself  is  only  an  ex- 
pression in  human  weakness  of  the  eternal  saving 
grace  of  the  Most  High.  Thus  deep  does  the 
poem  run;  it  ends  in  awe  and  holy  surprise.  The 
great  musician  and  the  great  speaker  who  has 
wrought  this  change  upon  the  gloomy  and  half- 
dead  king  hastens  through  the  morning  twilight, 
through  the  awe-struck  landscape,  through  the 
community,  all  unaware  of  the  great  discovery 
to  his  home.  The  world  at  dawn  trembles  with 
a  sad,  a  beautiful  surprise;  God  is  in  the  morning 
light.  David  lives  in  the  same  awe;  the  morning 
breaks  and  it  seems  to  him  as  if  everything  were 
proclaiming  the  truth  that  he  had  found,  "E'en 
so,  it  is  so";  man  is  constituted  by  the  Spirit  of 
God;  man  is  redeemed  through  man  as  the  serv- 
ant of  the  Eternal  love. 

"Said  Abner,  *At  last  thou  art  come!  Ere  I  tell,  ere 
thou  speak, 

Kiss  my  cheek,  wish  me  well!*  Then  I  wished  it,  and 
did  kiss  his  cheek. 

And  he,  *  Since  the  King,  O  my  friend,  for  thy  counte- 
nance sent, 

Neither  drunken  nor  eaten  have  we;  nor  until  from  his 
tent 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  REDEMPTION       293 

Thou  return  with  the  joyful  assurance  the  King  liveth 

yet. 
Shall  our  lip  with  the  honey  be  bright,  with  the  water 

be  wet. 
For  out  of  the  black  mid-tent's  silence,  a  space  of  three 

days, 
Not  a  sound  hath  escaped  to  thy  servants,  of  prayer 

nor  of  praise, 
To  betoken  that  Saul  and  the  Spirit  have  ended  their 

strife. 
And  that  faint,  in  his  triumph,  the  monarch  sinks  back 

upon  life. 

***Yet  now  my  heart  leaps,  O  beloved!   God's  child 

with  his  dew 
On  thy  gracious  gold  hair,  and  those  lilies  still  living 

and  blue 
Just  broken  to  twine  round  thy  harpstrings,  as  if  no 

wild  heat 
Were  now  raging  to  torture  the  desert!' 

"Then  I,  as  was  meet. 
Knelt  down  to  the  God  of  my  fathers,  and  rose  on  my 

feet, 
And  ran  o'er  the  sand  burnt  to  powder.  The  tent  was 

unlooped; 
I  pulled  up  the  spear  that  obstructed,  and  under  I 

stooped; 
Hands  and  knees  on  the  slippery  grasspatch,  all  with- 
ered and  gone. 
That  extends  to  the  second  enclosure,  I  groped  my  way 

on 
Till  I  felt  where  the  foldskirts  fly  open.   Then  once 

more  I  prayed. 
And  opened  the  foldskirts  and  entered,  and  was  not 

afraid 


294     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

But  spoke,  *Here  is  David,  thy  servant!'    And  no 

voice  replied. 
At  the  first  I  saw  nought  but  the  blackness;  but  soon 

I  descried 
A  something  more  black  than  the  blackness  —  the 

vast,  the  upright 
Main  prop  which  sustains  the  pavilion:  and  slow  into 

sight 
Grew  a  figure  against  it,  gigantic  and  blackest  of  all. 
Then  a  sunbeam,  that  burst  thro'  the  tentroof ,  showed 

Saul. 

*'He  stood   as  erect  as  that   tent-prop,  both  arms 

stretched  out  wide 
On  the  great  cross-support  in  the  centre,  that  goes  to 

each  side; 
He  relaxed  not  a  muscle,  but  hung  there  as,  caught  in 

his  pangs 
And  waiting  his  change,  the  king-serpent  all  heavily 

hangs, 
Far  away  from  his  kind,  in  the  pine,  till  deliverance 

come 
With  the  spring-time  —  so  agonised  Saul,  drear  and 

stark,  blind,  and  dumb. 

"  Then  I  tuned  my  harp,  —  took  off  the  lilies  we  twine 

rounds  its  chords 
Lest  they  snap  'neath  the  stress  of  the  noontide  — ■ 

those  sunbeams  like  swords! 
And  I  first  played  the  tune  all  our  sheep  know,  as,  one 

after  one, 
So  docile  they  come  to  the  pen-door  till  folding  be  done. 
They  are  white  and  untorn  by  the  bushes,  for  lo,  they 

have  fed 
Where  the  long  grasses  stifle  the  water  within  the 

stream's  bed: 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  REDEMPTION       295 

And  now  one  after  one  seeks  its  lodging,  as  star  fol- 
lows star 

Into  eve  and  the  blue  far  above  us,  —  so  blue  and  so 
far! 

** —  Then  the  tune,  for  which  quails  on  the  cornland 

will  each  leave  his  mate 
To  fly  after  the  player;  then,  what  makes  the  crickets 

elate 
Till  for  boldness  they  fight  one  another:  and  then, 

what  has  weight 
To  set  the  quick  jerboa  a-musing  outside  his  sand 

house  — 
There  are  none  such  as  he  for  a  wonder,  half  bird  and 

half  mouse! 
God  made  all  the  creatures  and  gave  them  our  love 

and  our  fear, 
To  give  sign,  we  and  they  are  his  children,  one  family 

here." 

Here  is  the  appeal  of  nature,  through  these 
four  songs,  upon  Saul. 

"Then  I  played  the  help-tune  of  our  reapers,  their 

wine-song,  when  hand 
Grasps  at  hand,  eye  lights  eye  in  good  friendship,  and 

great  hearts  expand 
And  grow  one  in  the  sense  of  this  world's  life.  —  And 

then,  the  last  song 
When  the  dead  man  is  praised  on  his  journey  —  *Bear, 

bear  him  along 
With  his  few  faults  shut  up  like  dead  flowerets!   Are 

balm-seeds  not  here 
To  console  us.^  The  land  has  none  left  such  as  he  on  the 

bier. 


296      ASPECTS   OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEBT 

Oh,  would  we  might  keep  thee,  my  brother!*    And 

then,  the  glad  chaunt 
Of  the  marriage,  —  first  go  the  young  maidens,  next, 

she  whom  we  vaunt 
As  the  beauty,  the  pride  of  our  dwelling,  —  And  then, 

the  great  march 
Wherein  man  runs  to  man  to  assist  him  and  buttress 

an  arch 
Nought  can  break;  who  shall  harm  them,  our  friends? 

—  Then,  the  chorus  intoned 
As  the  Levites  go  up  to  the  altar  in  glory  enthroned. 
But  I  stopped  here:  for  here  in  the  darkness  Saul 

groaned." 

Here  comes  the  recital  of  the  history  of  Saul, 
the  dignity  of  the  man,  the  glory  of  the  soldier's 
life  and  the  glory  of  the  king.  David  h£is  won 
Saul  back  to  life;  how  shall  he  keep  him,  how 
shall  he  go  further  and  save  his  soul?  David  re- 
minds Saul,  as  I  have  said,  of  the  immortality  of 
his  influence;  he  must  die,  disappear  in  dust;  his 
monuments  must  perish,  but  the  memory  of  the 
first  king  who  wrought  great  deeds  for  his  people 
will  live  in  the  increasing  life  of  all  the  generations 
of  his  race  on  to  the  end.  That,  however,  is  not 
enough;  David  must  discover  why  he  loves  Saul, 
and  what  is  the  source  of  the  passion  within  him- 
self that  would  save  Saul  and  make  him  a  new, 
a  glorified  spirit. 

*" —  What,  my  soul?  see  thus  far  and  no  farther?  when 

doors  great  and  small 
Nine-and-ninety  flew  ope  at  our   touch,  should  the 

hundredth  appal? 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  REDEMPTION       297 

In  the  least  things  have  faith,  yet  distrust  in  the 

greatest  of  all? 
Do  I  find  love  so  full  in  my  nature,  God's  ultimate 

gift, 
That  I  doubt  his  own  love  can  compete  with  it?  Here, 

the  parts  shift? 
Here,  the  creature  surpass  the  Creator,  —  the  end, 

what  Began? 
Would  I  fain  in  my  impotent  yearning  do  all  for  this 

man. 
And  dare  doubt  he  alone  shall  not  help  him,  who  yet 

alone  can? 
Would  it  ever  have  entered  my  mind,  the  bare  will, 

much  less  power. 
To  bestow  on  this  Saul  what  I  sang  of,  the  marvelous 

dower 
Of  the  life  he  was  gifted  and  filled  with?  To  make  such 

a  soul. 
Such  a  body,  and  then  such  an  earth  for  insphering  the 

whole? 
And  doth  it  not  enter  my  mind  (as  my  warm  tears 

attest) 
These  good  things  being  given,  to  go  on,  and  give  one 

more,  the  best? 
Ay,  to  save  and  redeem  and  restore  him,  maintain  at 

the  height 
This    perfection,  —  succeed    with    life's    day-spring, 

death's  minute  of  night? 
Interpose  at  the  difficult  minute,  snatch    Saul  the 

mistake, 
Saul  the  failure,  the  ruin  he  seems  now,  —  and  bid  him 

awake 
From  the  dream,  the  probation,  the  prelude,  to  find 

himself  set 
Clear  and  safe  in  new  light  and  new  life,  —  a  new  har- 
mony yet 


298      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

To  be  run,  and  continued,  and  ended  —  who  knows? 

—  or  endure ! 
The  man  taught  enough  by  life's  dream,  of  the  rest  to 

make  sure; 
By  the  pain-throb,  triumphantly  winning  intensified 

bliss. 
And  the  next  world's  reward  and  repose,  by  the 

struggles  in  this. 

"*I  believe  it!    'T  is  thou,  God,  that  givest,  'tis  I 

who  receive: 
In  the  first  is  the  last,  in  thy  will  is  my  power  to  believe. 
All 's  one  gift :  thou  canst  grant  it  moreover,  as  prompt 

to  my  prayer 
As  I  breathe  out  this  breath,  as  I  open  these  arms  to 

the  air. 
From  thy  will,  stream  the  worlds,  life  and  nature,  thy 

dread  Sabaoth: 
I  will?  —  the  mere  atoms  despise  me!  Why  am  I  not 

loth 
To  look  that,  even  that  in  the  face  too?   Why  is  it  I 

dare 
Think  but  lightly  of  such  impuissance?   What  stops 

my  despair? 
This;  —  't  is  not  what  man  Does  which  exalts  him,  but 

what  man  Would  do! 
See  the  King  —  I  would  help  him  but  cannot,  the 

wishes  fall  through. 
Could  I  wrestle  to  raise  him  from  sorrow,  grow  poor  to 

enrich, 
To  fill  up  his  life,  starve  my  own  out,  I  would,  — 

knowing  which, 
I  know  that  my  service  is  perfect.  Oh,  speak  through 

me  now! 
Would  I  suffer  for  him  that  I  love?  So  wouldst  thou  — 

so  wilt  thou! 


THE  MYSTERY   OF  REDEMPTION       299 

So  shall  crown  thee  the  topmost,  inefiFablest,  uttermost 

crown  — 
And  thy  love  fill  infinitude  wholly,  nor  leave  up  nor 

down 
One  spot  for  the  creature  to  stand  in!    It  is  by  no 

breath. 
Turn  of  eye,  wave  of  hand,  that  salvation  joins  issue 

with  death! 
As  thy  Love  is  discovered  almighty,   almighty  be 

proved 
Thy  power,   that  exists  with  and  for   it,   of  being 

Beloved ! 
He  who  did  most,  shall  bear  most;  the  strongest  shall 

stand  the  most  weak. 
'Tis  the  weakness  in  strength,  that  I  cry  for!  "* 

What  does  that  mean?  The  Infinite  compas- 
sion, the  Infinite  sympathy  which  sometimes  in 
our  foolishness  we  say  can  have  no  part  in  the 
life  of  a  perfect  Being  is  indeed  absolute  only  in 
God.  We  figure  God  as  self-sufl&cient,  as  infi- 
nitely complacent,  and  therefore  as  incapable  of 
understanding  the  life  of  man.  For  the  great 
thinkers  in  the  history  of  Christianity  here  was 
the  one  vast  meaning  of  the  ministry  of  Jesus; 
he  was  the  assurance  to  the  world  that  God  does 
enter  into  the  tragedy  of  human  life  and  that  he 
understands  it.  That  meaning  of  the  career  of 
Jesus,  I  hope,  will  never  become  obsolete;  it  is 
supported  by  the  best  in  universal  man. 

**"T  is  the  weakness  in  strength,  that  I  cry  for!    my 
flesh,  that  I  seek 


300     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEBY 

In  the  Godhead !  I  seek  and  I  find  it.  O  Saul,  it  shall 

be 
A  Face  like  my  face  that  receives  thee;  a  Man  like  to 

me, 
Thou  shalt  love  and  be  loved  by,  for  ever:  a  Hand  like 

this  hand 
Shall  throw  open  the  gates  of  new  life  to  thee!  See  the 

Christ  stand!'" 


IV 
We  turn  now  for  a  moment  to  the  three  points 
to  which  I  have  already  referred  —  the  object, 
and  the  method,  and  the  issue  of  the  poem.  The 
object  of  the  poem  is  the  highest,  the  salvation  of 
a  soul.  There  is  no  object  like  this.  You  have  a 
child;  you  think  of  the  guilt,  and  the  woe,  and 
the  foulness  of  the  world  into  which  you  are  to 
send  that  boy  or  that  girl.  Did  you  ever  look  in- 
ward at  that  mind,  capable  of  infinite  woe,  ca- 
pable of  inexpressible  joy,  and  can  you  do  that 
without  longing  to  be  able  to  save  that  soul? 
When  one  looks  upon  one's  friend  or  brother,  and 
when  one  sees  exactly  how  the  case  is  with  friend 
or  brother,  —  great  capacity,  great  possibility, 
and  over  this  mistake,  evil  habits,  inward  failure, 
is  one  moved  by  no  desire  to  save  the  imperilled 
soul.?  Can  it  be  that  we  have  never  felt  any  sym- 
pathy with  the  passion  of  Jesus?  Human  beings 
appealed  to  him  as  souls,  spiritual  substances; 
they  were  all  wrong,  but  they  were  capable  of 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  REDEMPTION       301 

being  made  all  right;  when  all  wrong  they  were  in 
hell,  when  made  all  right  they  were  in  heaven; 
infinite  woe  went  with  their  wrongness,  infinite 
bliss  went  with  their  lightness.  Have  we  never 
looked  upon  human  beings  in  that  way?  If  we 
have  not  we  cannot  understand  Sauly  this  poem 
comes  out  of  the  insight  and  passion  that  would 
save  a  soul. 

A  word  must  be  given  to  the  method  of  the 
poem.  It  is  twofold;  the  saving  passion  works 
by  music,  great  music,  and  by  speech  burdened 
with  insight  and  sincerity;  the  double  service 
that  every  Christian  church  strives,  not  always 
successfully,  it  must  be  confessed,  to  render. 
Great  hymns,  set  to  great  music,  rolled  against 
the  mind  and  the  heart  of  the  people,  slacken  the 
winter  of  their  worldliness,  thaw  them  out,  and 
make  them  once  more  like  mountains  when  the 
snows  have  left  them  and  the  bloom  of  summer 
comes  upon  them;  great  hymns  and  great  melo- 
dies wedded  to  them,  wielded  by  instrumental 
and  by  vocal  power  upon  the  people,  express  the 
mystic  insight  of  Browning's  poem. 

If  I  understand  Browning  here  he  puts  speech, 
when  burdened  with  insight  and  sincerity,  when 
it  is  the  oracle  of  the  Lord,  above  music.  The 
subject,  I  am  well  aware,  might  be  debated,  and 
different  conclusions  reached  by  the  devotees  of 
the  two  great  arts  of  music  and  speech.  Each  art, 


302     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEBY 

it  might  be  said,  is  supreme  in  its  own  sphere; 
neither  art  can  do  the  work  of  the  other.  Most 
debaters  would  be  wilUng  to  rest  the  case  here. 
Browning,  however,  would  seem  to  go  beyond 
this.  The  great  quality  of  music  is  in  emotion; 
the  quality  of  great  speech  is  light  and  reality,  and 
for  the  human  soul  in  darkness  the  service  ren- 
dered by  speech  is  the  greater  service.  Words, 
burdened  with  insight,  with  sincerity  and  with 
sympathy,  selected  with  unerring  instinct,  and 
thus  breathed  upon  other  minds  and  into  them, 
are  the  highest  things  we  know.  As  example  the 
words  of  Jesus  occur  to  one:  "Come  unto  me  all 
ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden  and  I  will  give 
you  rest;  take  my  yoke  upon  you  and  learn  of  me, 
for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  of  heart,  and  ye  shall 
find  rest  unto  your  souls,  for  my  yoke  is  easy  and 
my  burden  is  light."  Let  one  look  at  all  the  great 
words  of  Jesus,  and  he  will  find  that  this  is  their 
characteristic,  —  they  are  burdened  with  in- 
sight, they  are  the  voice  of  humanity  at  its  best. 
"Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  thy 
name;  thy  kingdom  come,  thy  will  be  done  on 
earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."  What  more,  what  other 
can  we  say  when  we  are  at  our  best?  That  voice 
of  highest  insight,  utmost  sincerity,  widest  sym- 
pathy, completest  humanity  is  the  great  liberat- 
ing, exalting  and  hallowing  power  in  the  world 
of  souls. 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  REDEMPTION       303 

The  result  of  Browning's  poem  is  a  great  faith. 
We  can  never  gain  a  faith  of  any  kind,  much  less 
a  great  faith,  if  we  see  only  man  as  a  physical 
organism,  and  regard  man  as  wholly  compre- 
hended under  the  category  of  the  animal.  If  one 
cannot  see  the  capacity  for  a  transcendent  life, 
there  is  in  man  no  basis  for  faith,  nor  in  the  uni- 
verse that  brought  him  forth.  One  cannot  love 
where  there  is  nothing  to  love;  one  cannot  serve 
where  there  is  nothing  worth  serving.  When  one 
does  recognize  in  another  human  being  a  trans- 
cendent capacity,  when  one  loves  it  and  sets 
one's  self  to  turn  it  from  a  mere  capacity  into  a 
shining  actuality,  one  stands  in  a  new  universe. 
The  Being  who  made  a  soul  must  be  as  great  as 
the  soul  he  made;  he  must,  in  some  sense,  be  the 
nature  of  that  soul.  The  Being  who  gives  to  one 
soul  the  passion  to  redeem  another  soul  must 
himself  be  that  redeeming  passion  in  its  infinite 
strength.  Both  the  soul  that  one  loves  and  that 
one  would  save,  and  the  soul  that  loves  and  that 
loves  with  the  might  of  the  saving  passion,  lead 
back  to  the  Ineffable.  The  worth  that  we  love  in 
man  is  God's  image  defaced  and  defiled  by  the 
scourge  of  time;  the  eyes  by  which  we  see  worth 
and  the  passion  by  which  we  would  cleanse  it  of 
its  stain  are  again  the  image  of  God  in  us.  God  is 
the  soul  of  our  worth,  the  heart  of  our  love;  in 
our  vision  of  human  worth  and  our  saving  love 


804     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

for  it,  our  eyes  rest  upon  the  reflection  of  the  face 
of  the  Eternal.  So  Jesus  thought,  loved,  lived 
and  died;  and  thus  his  faith  in  the  worth  of  man 
was  born,  his  faith,  too,  in  his  Father  as  man's 
Redeemer. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END 
I 
If  that  which  baffles  all  analysis  and  passes  all 
understanding  is  a  mystery,  in  the  modern  sense 
of  the  word,  the  end  of  human  life  is  surely  a 
mystery.  Mystery  as  the  knowledge  of  the  initi- 
ated, the  secret  of  the  wise,  the  peculiar  posses- 
sion of  those  who  live  near  the  heart  of  things  is 
a  word  not  of  pretence  but  of  truth.  Mystery  as 
the  publication  of  hidden  wisdom,  as  the  clear 
disclosure  of  the  hitherto  concealed  purpose  of 
the  Eternal,  is  the  meaning  that  the  word  often 
bears  in  the  New  Testament.  It  requires  no  argu- 
ment to  prove  the  propriety  of  this  use.  A  new 
epoch  in  the  life  of  humanity  may  reasonably  be 
expected  to  bring  many  dark  things  to  light,  and 
among  these  the  relation  of  the  human  soul  and 
the  entire  world  of  time  to  the  purpose  of  the  In- 
finite. Underlying  these  senses  of  the  term  mys- 
tery, there  is  that  which  cleaves  to  it  as  its  ulti- 
mate meaning,  the  reality  that  has  not  been,  and 
at  present  cannot  be,  comprehended.  It  is  this 
meaning  that  the  word  mystery  bears  in  our  cur- 
rent use,  as  illustrated  in  these  strikingly  beauti- 
ful words  of  Carlyle:  ''Eternity,  which  cannot  be 


306      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

far  off,  is  my  one  strong  city.  I  look  into  it  fix- 
edly now  and  then;  all  terrors  about  it  seem  to  me 
superfluous ;  all  knowledge  about  it,  any  the  least 
glimmer  of  certain  knowledge,  impossible  to 
living  mortal."  ^  In  the  idiom  of  Kant,  one  might 
say,  knowledge  of  the  future  world  is  impossible, 
because  that  world  lies  beyond  the  bounds  of  all 
attainable  experience.  That  there  is  a  fallacy 
underlying  this  negative  dogmatism  we  shall  see 
later  in  this  discussion.  Here  we  confess,  with 
the  wise  of  all  the  ages,  the  mystery  of  the  end 
of  human  life. 

I  suppose  the  origin  of  our  being  is  in  the  in- 
visible; such  is  the  vital  force  from  which  we 
come.  That  in  such  a  force  there  should  be  the 
potency  of  an  Isaiah,  a  Plato,  a  Paul,  a  Dante,  a 
Shakspere,  is  indeed  amazing.  Did  it  not  con- 
stantly occur,  that  from  such  beginnings  human 
beings  develop  into  a  great  variety  of  powers  and 
characters,  no  one  would  deem  it  credible.  The 
mystery  of  birth  is  the  great  parallel  to  the  mys- 
tery of  death.  In  the  light  of  our  origin,  it  may 
well  be  that  "the  breath  that  men  call  death,'* 
bears  in  it  the  potency  of  a  higher  life;  in  that 
breath  there  may  be  carried  the  memory  of  a 
human  world,  the  ideas  through  which  that 
world  was  understood,  the  images  of  the  souls  to 
whom  it  was  related  in  time,  the  character  good 

'  Reminiscences.   Norton's  Edition,  part  ii,   p.  310. 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  807 

or  bad  which  came  out  of  the  struggle  under  the 
sun,  the  permanent  personahty  as  the  subject  of 
the  earthly  experience,  and  the  prophetic  subject 
of  a  vastly  more  important  experience  in  Eter- 
nity. As  in  the  Psalmist's  words,  "Night  unto 
night  showeth  forth  knowledge,"  so  the  dialogue 
of  faith  continues  between  the  mystery  of  birth 
and  the  mystery  of  death. 

The  value  of  the  world  of  the  dead  to  the  world 
of  the  living  is  something  truly  significant  here. 
We  sometimes  ask  the  question  whether  after  all 
love  is  permanent,  and  to  what  extent  the  dead 
whom  we  have  known  and  revered,  continue  to 
exert  a  substantial  influence  upon  the  living. 
The  answer  will,  of  course,  depend  upon  the  char- 
acter of  the  living.  The  nearer  the  living  human 
being  sinks  to  the  animal  level,  the  less  will  be 
his  interest  in  the  dead.  An  animal  will  grieve 
for  a  while  for  its  dead  offspring.  Piteously  I 
have  heard  a  cow  moan  over  its  dead  calf,  which 
it  could  not  bring  back  to  life,  from  which  it 
could  extort  no  response,  but  the  grief  was  brief. 
The  return  of  hunger  and  the  dead  removed  from 
sight  would  utterly  blot  out,  in  a  day  or  two,  all 
memory  of  the  loss.  The  dead,  in  the  animal 
world,  play  no  part  in  the  life  of  the  living.  Much 
the  same  may  be  said  of  men  and  women  who 
have  sunk  to  the  animal  level.  For  them  the 
dead  are  without  influence;  equally  so  the  living 


308     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

when  they  are  absent:  "Out  of  sight,  out  of 
mind." 

When  we  rise  to  the  intrinsic,  human  sphere  we 
find  that  things  are  different.  The  child  that 
lived  but  a  few  hours  is  to  its  mother  a  perma- 
nent memory,  and  in  her  noblest  moments,  a 
memory  of  prof  ound  influence.  The  wonder  recurs 
about  its  future  and  mixed  with  that  there  is  the 
silent,  reverential  sense  of  loss.  The  most  potent 
religious  influence  in  my  home,  in  the  early  years 
of  my  life,  was  the  memory  of  a  little  sister  who 
died  at  the  age  of  two  years.  I,  a  little  over  three 
years  old,  can  recall  looking  at  her  sweet  face  in 
death  and  wondering  why  she  did  not  awake  and 
answer  my  call.  I  could  not  understand  death; 
nor  my  mother's  sorrow,  nor  the  heart-break  in 
the  home.  I  thought  the  man  who  put  the  lid 
on  the  little  coflfin  the  crudest  savage  that  ever 
cursed  a  home,  and  I  blamed  those  who  carried 
it  away  as  the  cause  of  our  woe.  That  scene, 
painted  in  fires  of  love  upon  the  blackness  of  grief, 
is  as  vivid  in  outline  and  in  detail  as  if  it  had 
taken  place  yesterday.  That  scene  became  the 
religious  memory  of  the  home.  It  was  spoken  of 
only  in  great  moments,  and  then  only  briefly,  but 
the  world  of  exalting  influence,  exercised  by  the 
dear  little  dead  child,  then  appeared  as  the  holy 
splendor  of  our  lives. 

Here  the  personal  strain  is  inevitable.  My  re- 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  309 

membrance  of  dead  kinsmen  and  friends  is  one  of 
the  influential  forces  in  my  existence.  I  cannot 
forget  a  great  grandmother  whom  I  saw  for  the 
last  time  when  I  was  five  and  she  about  ninety- 
years  old.  She  was  a  wonderful  compound  of  in- 
telligence, character,  energy  and  boundless  affec- 
tion for  her  kin.  I  recall  on  that  last  visit  the  sun- 
burst of  love  that  met  my  mother  and  me;  first 
the  dear  old  soul  grabbed  my  mother  and  kissed 
her;  then  she  grabbed  me  doing  likewise,  which  I 
did  not  appreciate  as  I  should;  then  she  grabbed 
the  tea-pot.  The  Highland  welcome  of  which 
Burns  sings,  the  tempestuous  tenderness,  the 
hallowing  humanity  of  this  scene  I  have  found  a 
permanent  memory.  I  cannot  forget  my  athletic 
maternal  grandfather,  whose  mind  was  "as  clean 
as  river  sand,"  and  his  illimitable  scorn,  chas- 
tened by  kindness,  for  weakness  and  ineflficiency, 
like  a  thunder-cloud  edged  and  glorified  by  the 
all- victorious  sunlight.  The  image  of  this  man  of 
power  and  worth  haunted  me  through  all  shiftless 
days;  it  still  abides.  Nor  can  I  forget  a  conversa- 
tion to  which  I  listened  as  a  boy  of  eleven  be- 
tween my  father  and  his  mother  whom  we  had 
gone  to  visit.  My  grandfather  stood  at  our  part- 
ing, with  the  grandeur  and  the  gloom  of  the  hills 
that  lay  behind  his  farm,  weather-beaten,  fur- 
rowed by  time,  old  and  weary,  the  flint  of  the 
rock  there  when  the  bloom  of  the  heather  had 


310      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

long  ago  faded,  in  reverential  silence,  leaning  on 
his  staff.  The  mother  spoke  to  her  son  and  her 
words  are  still  at  my  command:  *'You  see  that 
your  father  and  I  are  on  the  brink  of  the  grave. 
We  cannot  much  longer  make  a  meeting  place 
and  a  tie  to  keep  you  a'  thegither.  Do  what  you 
can  to  keep  a'  thegither  and  in  kindness  when  we 
are  gane."  In  a  short  time  they  went;  all  save  one 
of  their  ten  children  have  followed;  and  still  the 
great  heart  of  the  trembling  old  mother  continues 
to  beat  in  this  world  of  the  living  and  pleads  for 
kindness. 

All  this  deepens  the  mystery  of  the  end.  If  we 
could  get  over  our  loss,  if  as  the  exquisite  Scottish 
song  has  it,  "Sorrow's  sel  wears  past,  John,"  if  we 
could  outgrow  all  memory  of  the  dead,  and  all 
need  of  their  influence,  and  at  the  same  time  keep 
the  integrity  of  our  human  world,  the  mystery  of 
the  end  would  be  dissolved.  The  world  that  has 
gone  would  then  be  dismissed  as  if  it  had  never 
been;  it  would  be  reduced  to  a  forgotten  incident, 
in  an  existence,  itself  purely  incidental.  This  can 
never  wholly  be  while  men  are  men.  "The  pale 
kingdoms  of  the  past"  grow  vaster  and  vaster; 
the  white  and  beautiful  faces  of  our  dead  rise 
in  those  kingdoms  with  unfading  distinctness. 
They  are  with  us  more  and  more,  part  and  parcel 
of  our  being,  unforgetable,  closer  to  us  than  our 
shadows,  the  echo  to  the  beating  of  our  heart,  the 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  311 

music  that  accompanies  our  best  thoughts  and 
our  noblest  days.  Here  in  the  experience  of  nor- 
mal human  beings  is  this  fellowship  with  the  dead 
through  memory,  this  communion  of  saints,  or 
better  of  brave,  true  and  tender  souls,  this  organ- 
ization of  a  human  world  from  time  and  eternity. 
What  does  it  mean  if  not  that  men  are  now  chil- 
dren of  the  Infinite  and  pilgrims  of  Eternity?  As 
good  men  grow  older  the  influence  of  the  dead 
becomes  more  and  more  vital.  In  the  sunshine 
that  floods  the  earth  there  is  the  light  of  all  the 
stars;  they  are  unseen  but  potent;  their  power  is 
indeed  small  compared  to  that  of  the  glory  of  the 
day,  yet  to  what  heights  and  splendors  they  carry 
the  imagination,  and  in  what  a  fellowship  of  shin- 
ing worlds  they  set  this  poor  planet.  In  the  lumi- 
nous human  atmosphere  that  we  breathe  there  is 
present  the  mild  splendor  of  our  vanished  ones; 
remote  and  feeble  this  influence  seems  when  set 
in  comparison  with  the  warm,  availing,  searching 
presence  of  the  living;  but  it  hfts  thought  from 
sense  to  spirit,  extends  the  sources  of  motive  to 
the  infinite,  interlaces  time  with  eternity,  and 
reveals  the  simple  fact  that  good  men  inevitably 
live  out  of  the  Unseen  universe. 

II 

We  pass  here  from  the  question  of  the  influence 
of  the  dead,  to  that  of  the  Unseen  universe,  upon 


312      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

our  human  life.  How  far  does  the  Unseen  world 
count  with  men,  and  with  what  sort  of  men 
does  it  count?  Is  there  any  light  here  upon  the 
reality  of  the  Invisible?  Is  there  any  hint  from 
the  presence  in  living  men  of  the  Eternal  of  the 
worth  of  man's  spirit?  If  the  religious  man  lives 
in  time  by  the  power  of  the  Eternal  what  does 
this  mean  as  to  the  significance  of  man's  soul?  If 
he  belongs  to  two  worlds  and  cannot  be  man  with 
less  than  two  worlds,  does  not  this  fact  place  him 
in  the  relation  of  incidental  to  the  temporal  and 
of  permanence  to  the  Eternal?  If  it  should  ap- 
pear that  God  is  the  strength  of  our  life  here  and 
now,  this  fact  would  go  far  to  justify  the  hope 
that  God  will  be  our  portion  forever.  Let  it  ap- 
pear that  Eternity  lives  in  the  religious  man  now, 
the  Soul  of  his  soul,  and  it  would  seem  to  be 
strange  to  allow  that  death  dissolves  this  union. 
The  fact,  therefore,  of  the  consequence  for  the 
normal  human  being,  of  the  Eternal  in  this 
earthly  life,  is  of  the  greatest  moment.  If  the 
Unseen  means  nothing  to  man  now,  how  can  he 
argue  that  he  means  anything  to  the  Unseen 
after  death  or  before  it?  One  may  indeed  be  sig- 
nificant to  the  Absolute  pity  that  one  has  utterly 
ignored;  yet  it  seems  reasonable  to  say  that  the 
man  to  whom  the  Universe  means  nothing  can 
hardly  expect  that  he  can  mean  anything  to  the 
Universe.  If  all  men  everywhere  were  able  to  live 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  313 

wholly  out  of  the  resources  of  time,  the  question 
of  life  after  death  would  be  an  empty  question. 
What  then  are  the  facts? 

There  is  in  nearly  all  men  some  sense  of  the 
Unseen  reality  that  is  over  against  each  man's 
existence,  that  is  over  against  the  existence  of  the 
race.  It  is  the  Infinite  other  and  companion  of 
the  soul,  whether  we  are  indifferent  to  it  and  it  to 
us  or  not.  It  is  there  as  Reality,  as  an  inscrutable 
something,  and  even  when  there  is  no  dialogue 
between  it  and  the  soul,  when  each  is  toward  the 
other  dumb,  the  grand  Totality  of  being  is  not 
without  profound  and  amazing  influence  upon 
human  thought  and  feeling.  If  any  man  ever 
reduced  all  being  to  nothingness  by  his  philos- 
ophy that  man  was  David  Hume.  Yet  on  Calton 
Hill,  with  Adam  Smith,  on  a  clear  star-lit  evening 
Hume  could  not  repress  the  confession :  "  O  Adam, 
there  is  a  God."  So  the  story  goes;  it  is  at  least 
symbolically  authentic;  it  records  the  inevitable 
influence  of  the  Infinite  upon  the  mind  that  has 
closed  its  account  with  the  Infinite  as  nothing- 
ness. 

The  appeal  of  the  Unseen  universe  to  the  imag- 
ination, in  almost  all  cases  of  developed  intelli- 
gence, is  very  great.  Almost  every  normal  mind 
occasionally  awakes  to  the  fact  that  it  is  em- 
bosomed in  the  Infinite,  that  as  our  globe  runs  its 
appointed  course  in  the  heart  of  boundless  space, 


314     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

and  among  worlds  busy  and  bright  and  innumer- 
able, so  each  human  life  goes  its  way  with  the 
lights  and  shadows  of  Eternity  upon  it.  All  our 
greater  poets  have  been  moved  by  the  magnitude 
and  wonder  of  nature;  they  have  been  moved 
again  as  they  have  beheld  the  drama  of  human 
life,  acted  in  the  presence  of  the  infinite  ranges 
of  being  surrounding  it.  The  question  has  been 
asked,  When  did  nature  become  significant  for 
the  poet?  The  true  answer  is,  from  the  beginning. 
The  wide  sea  and  the  boundless  sky  are  in  Homer 
everywhere;  in  Sophocles  the  sun  is  the  witness  of 
man's  woes;  all  poetry,  ancient  and  modern,  of 
any  depth  and  power  reflects  the  impression 
made  upon  the  imagination  by  the  Infinite. 
"Canst  thou  bind  the  sweet  influences  of  the 
Pleiades  or  loose  the  bands  of  Orion?"  Canst 
thou  arrest  the  flow  of  light  from  the  eternal  cen- 
tres of  fire  or  upset  and  annul  the  stabilities  of 
eternal  law?  The  Infinite  is  the  great  educator  of 
imagination  in  men  of  genius  and  in  all  intelligent 
human  beings.  The  universe  is  the  supreme  aes- 
thetic wonder;  it  is  supreme  in  magnitude  and 
in  mystery. 

When  we  advance  to  men  whose  religion  is  part 
of  the  strength  and  joy  of  life,  we  discover  in  such 
men  the  deeper  presence  of  the  Infinite.  There  is 
in  them  the  sense  of  dependence  upon  the  Invisi- 
ble.   In  him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  315 

being;  upon  him  we  are  dependent  for  life  and 
breath  and  all  things.  Out  of  this  conviction 
with  the  sincerity  of  life  in  it,  and  because  life  is 
good,  flows  inevitably  our  psalm:  "How  excellent 
is  thy  loving-kindness,  O  God!  Therefore  the 
children  of  men  put  their  trust  under  the  shadow 
of  thy  wings."  ^  Where  life  is  felt  to  be  good  the 
sense  of  obligation  is  sure  to  rise.  The  religious 
man  has  to  do  with  the  Eternal;  he  stands  to  the 
universe  as  a  servant.  His  earthly  task  is  of 
heavenly  appointment;  he  must  answer  for  his 
fidelity  or  infidelity  not  only  to  human  masters 
but  also  to  the  great  Taskmaster.  He  says  with 
the  apostle  to  the  nations,  sure  of  the  provisional 
and  even  petty  character  of  human  opinion,  "it 
is  a  small  thing  for  me  to  be  judged  of  man's 
judgment."  With  the  same  great  free  spirit  he 
adds,  "Neither  judge  I  myself."  There  is  no  final 
judgment  in  this  world  for  or  against  any  man, 
any  career;  the  best  opinion  in  the  highest  court 
of  time  is  only  approximate,  anticipatory.  God 
is  the  Judge  of  all.  All  minds,  all  careers  come 
eventually  to  this  Supreme  Court  of  the  universe; 
the  right  and  the  wrong,  the  good  and  the  evil, 
the  use  and  the  abuse  of  life  rise  to  the  Infinite. 
Religion  is  ultimate  morality;  it  lifts  the  exist- 
ence of  the  individual  person  to  the  verdict  of  the 
Eternal. 

1  Ps.  36:7. 


316      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEEY 

"In  the  corrupted  currents  of  this  world 
Offence's  gilded  hand  may  shove  by  justice. 
And  oft  't  is  seen  the  wicked  prize  itself 
Buys  out  the  law;  but  't  is  not  so  above: 
There  is  no  shuffling,  there  the  action  lies 
In  his  true  nature,  and  we  ourselves  compelled 
Even  to  the  teeth  and  forehead  of  our  faults 
To  give  in  evidence." 

From  the  sense  of  obligation  to  the  Infinite 
comes  the  feeling  of  accountability;  from  the 
thought  of  amenableness  to  the  judgment  of  the 
Most  High  arises  the  consciousness  of  the  dignity 
of  man.  From  the  sense  of  moral  failure  there 
issues  the  keenest  pain,  the  utmost  misery;  and 
from  this  the  cry  for  forgiveness,  a  new  chance  to 
show  one's  self  worthy,  the  purpose  to  live  a  new 
life  in  God.  The  Infinite  worth  appears  here  as 
the  Infinite  compassion;  the  heart  dissolves  in 
worship ;  the  great  dialogue  of  true  prayer  begins 
between  the  human  spirit  and  the  Divine.  We 
ask  with  William  James  not  why  men  should 
pray,  but  why  they  do  pray,  and  we  note  that 
prayer  springs  like  a  fountain  from  our  relation  to 
the  Unseen,  a  relation  of  need  and  gladness,  of 
adoration  and  trust.  Religion  is  at  last  the  union 
of  two  worlds;  it  is  our  time-world  interfused 
with  the  Eternal.  Its  highest  moment  for  the 
intellect  on  the  question  of  the  future  is  that  it 
discovers  the  Infinite  as  essential  to  the  soul,  that 
it  reveals  the  soul  as  living  its  life  by  the  presence 


THE  MYSTEBY  OF  THE  END  817 

and  power  of  the  Infinite.  True  individuality  is 
compatible  with  the  reality  of  a  social  whole; 
with  home,  business,  society,  the  nation  and  the 
world,  with  all  the  past  of  man  upon  this  earth, 
each  soul  is  inwoven.  From  that  whole  it  cannot 
be  detached  without  losing  its  existence;  it  influ- 
ences all  the  members  of  the  whole  and  is  in  turn 
influenced  by  them.  We  sink  or  swim,  survive  or 
perish  together.  The  conscious  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual rests  upon  this  unconscious  humanity;  the 
imagination  of  the  single  human  being  is  filled 
with  colors  and  sounds  thrown  upon  it  from  the 
ends  of  the  earth;  the  psychic  stir  in  every  soul 
repeats  the  trouble  of  the  entire  world  of  men. 
An  individual  intellect,  imagination,  memory, 
feeling,  life  apart  from  the  whole  would  be  empty. 
The  reality  of  the  individual  is  in  the  reality  of 
the  whole.  And  this  is  true  of  the  Infinite.  Our 
feeling,  intelligence,  aspirations,  visions  of  good, 
sense  of  history,  purpose,  character,  and  hope 
are  formed  by  the  action  upon  us  of  the  Infinite 
whole.  The  rational  life  of  the  universe  is  a 
whole;  it  is  seamless  like  the  robe  of  Christ,  and 
the  Eternal  spirit  weaves  the  threads  of  individ- 
ual human  souls  into  the  fabric  of  his  own  being. 
From  this  point  of  view  immortality  is  a  present 
possession. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  thing  in  the  great 
literature  of  the  world  is  the  reflection  in  it  of  the 


318      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

Eternity  resident  in  human  experience.  In  a 
crude,  grotesque  way  this  image  of  the  Infinite  is 
found  in  Homer.  He  is  unable  to  recite  the  epic 
either  of  the  lUad  or  the  Odyssey  without  de- 
scribing the  part  that  the  gods  play  in  it.  He 
represents  the  childhood  of  the  world  in  his  sim- 
ple attempt  to  understand  man  and  man's  career 
as  the  product  of  the  visible  and  the  Invisible. 
Dante  expresses  the  same  conviction  in  his  way; 
the  enduring  quality  of  this  epic  is  in  its  concep- 
tion of  life,  so  true  to  the  deepest  experience  of 
mankind.  Milton  is  our  greatest  witness  in  Eng- 
lish, but  he  is  not  alone.  Tennyson's  greatest 
poem  comes  by  inspiration  of  the  dead;  indeed 
one  hardly  knows  where  to  stop  in  one's  citations. 
"In  Memoriam,"  and  "Ruby  Chapel"  and 
"  Prospice  "  are  typical  of  the  highest  spirit  in 
our  literature.  Even  Burns,  who  is  under  the 
spell  of  the  human  world  in  time  has  his  "  Cot- 
ter's Saturday  Night,"  and  his  great  song, 

**Ye  banks  and  braes  and  streams  around 
The  castle  of  Montgomery." 

When  we  turn  to  philosophy  we  come  upon  the 
same  thing.  Eternity  surely  constitutes  the  heart 
of  the  Platonic  philosophy,  and  upon  the  Eternal 
depends  the  whole  finite  universe,  in  the  great 
system  of  Aristotle.  Here  the  Stoics  are  wit- 
nesses for  our  contention;  and  even  the  Epicure- 
ans; their  greatest  representative,  the  poet  Lucre- 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  TEE  END  319 

tius,  puts  the  universe  into  the  brief  life  of  mortal 
man.  John  Scotus  Erigena,  Giordano  Bruno, 
Descartes,  Spinoza,  Leibnitz,  Kant,  Hegel, 
Berkeley  repeat  the  same  tale.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  French  sensationalism  and  the  English 
empiricism  that  derives  from  Hume,  there  is  no 
philosophy,  worthy  of  the  name,  that  does  not 
read  in  man's  nature,  in  one  form  or  another,  the 
presence  of  the  Eternal  mystery.  Whether  the 
Ultimate  reality  be  matter  or  mind,  whether  it  be 
friendly  or  hostile  or  merely  indifferent  to  man, 
it  is  present  in  man's  being  and  gives  wonder, 
depth,  mystery,  to  his  unexplained,  perhaps  inex- 
plicable existence. 

This  feature  of  all  the  great  things  that  men 
have  written  is  the  supreme  characteristic  of  the 
New  Testament.  It  is  composed  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  writings  of  various  dates  and  degrees  of 
worth;  but  there  is  one  quality  which  these 
writings  possess  in  common,  they  are  spontane- 
ous, beautiful,  often  matchless  expressions  of  the 
conscious  presence  in  man  of  the  Eternal  Spirit. 
They  could  never  have  come  into  being  except 
for  the  profound  and  wonderful  experience  which 
they  try  to  express.  Their  sincerity  is  beyond 
question;  they  are  without  conscious  art;  they 
have  no  purpose  other  than  to  utter  the  move- 
ment of  God  in  the  souls  of  men.  They  coalesce 
into  one  volume,  and  as  such  they  attest,  now 


320      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEBY 

with  tenderness,  and  again  with  solemn  grandeur, 
and  always  with  simplicity  and  sincerity,  the 
dawn  within  them  of  the  day  of  the  Lord.  Their 
chant  is,  "the  darkness  is  past  and  the  true  light 
now  shine th."  For  these  men  life  was  filled  and 
glorified  by  the  Infinite  Compassion  as  the  at- 
mosphere is  filled  and  transfigured  by  the  sun- 
light. No  day  without  sun  and  sunlight;  no 
Christian  life  without  God  and  God's  presence; 
here  is  the  sovereign  note  in  the  New  Testament, 
and  again  eternal  life  is  a  present  possession. 

The  primary  ground  of  faith  in  the  permanence 
of  the  human  spirit  is  the  essentialness  to  it  here 
and  now  of  the  Eternal.  It  is  this  life  of  God 
in  Jesus  that  constitutes  him  the  incomparable 
prophet  of  the  life  everlasting.  If  he  had  not 
lived  his  life  in  God  the  story  of  his  resurrection 
would  have  been  incredible,  or  if  credible  of  no 
moment.  Death  may  or  may  not  end  the  life  that 
is  detached  from  the  life  of  God;  but  such  a  life  is 
without  worth,  without  universal  character,  and 
its  fate  cannot  be  predicted.  It  would  seem  that 
we  must  say  that  what  is  without  universal  char- 
acter, or  the  capacity  for  universal  character,  is 
clearly  unessential,  and  therefore  dispensable, 
from  being.  This  is  the  nature  of  the  human  soul; 
it  has  grown  into  God,  or  it  has  clearly  the  capac- 
ity to  grow  into  God.  The  religious  soul  has  be- 
come part  of  the  meaning  of   God's  life;  it  is 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  821 

bound  up  with  the  Infinite;  its  destiny,  therefore, 
would  seem  to  be  to  abide  forever,  a  conscious 
presence,  in  the  house  not  made  with  hands  eter- 
nal in  the  heavens.  Finally,  we  cleave  to  Jesus 
because  his  spirit  has  worth  for  all  worlds,  be- 
cause that  worth  is  the  expression  of  God  dwell- 
ing within  him,  because  he  seems  essential  to  the 
life  of  God.  This  is  the  insight  of  faith,  the  vision 
that  beholds  the  primary  and  present  basis  for 
belief  in  life  after  death.  The  resurrection  of 
Jesus  strains  belief;  it  is  accepted  as  a  mystery. 
The  life  of  Jesus  as  lived  in  God,  and  of  worth 
essential  to  God,  is  a  mystery  of  light;  it  reveals 
the  law  of  a  humanity  that  cannot  be  torn  from 
its  place  in  the  heart  of  the  Infinite.  Who  shall 
separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ,  from  the  love 
of  God? 

in 

Let  us  now  turn  and  look  at  the  way  in  which 
men  have  faced  the  mystery  of  the  end.  For  the 
faith  in  life  after  death  is  always  much  more  a 
personal  attitude  than  a  bare  abstract  proposi- 
tion. Speaking  historically  it  may  be  said  that 
belief  in  the  reality  of  the  life  everlasting  supports 
itself  in  three  ways.  It  supports  itself  from  in- 
stinct, from  reason,  and  from  Christian  experi- 
ence and  insight.  There  are  these  three  ways  of 
gaining  the  victory  over  death ;  each  victory  has  a 


322      ASPECTS  OF  TEE  INFINITE  MYSTEBY 

character  of  its  own  and  in  any  general  survey  of 
the  subject  each  should  receive  some  attention. 
The  sea  bird  has  three  ways  of  maintaining  life; 
it  swims,  it  walks,  it  flies.  The  soul,  the  believing 
soul  has  three  ways  of  maintaining  its  faith  in  the 
reality  of  life  after  death;  it  feels,  it  reasons,  it 
rises  into  the  heights  of  Christian  experience  and 
insight. 

Consider  for  a  moment  the  force  of  instinct  in 
this  connection.  Historians  of  the  religions  of  the 
world  tell  us  that  almost  all  primitive  peoples 
believe  in  the  reality  of  life  after  death.  They  tell 
us  there  are  a  few  exceptions  to  this  general  rule, 
but,  they  continue,  the  exceptions  are  few  in  num- 
ber and  insignificant  in  character.  They  may 
therefore  be  disregarded.  As  a  general  thing 
primitive  peoples  have  believed  that  the  human 
spirit  survives  the  death  of  the  body.  And  all  the 
great  peoples  when  they  have  reassumed  the 
primitive  mood  have  believed  in  life  after  death; 
all  the  great  men  in  all  the  great  races  when  they 
have  reassumed  the  primitive  mood  have  reas- 
sumed the  primitive  belief.  They  have  done  so 
generally  through  feeling,  through  instinct,  under 
the  operation  of  an  irresistible  impulse  that  has 
made  the  belief  in  life  beyond  death  an  essential 
part  of  their  existence  here. 

Take  for  example  Egj^pt.  Egypt  is  the  most 
prosperous  country  in  the  world  today;  the  tide 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  323 

of  prosperity  and  of  humanity  is  constantly  ris- 
ing, the  land  is  beautiful  with  hope,  and  yet  this 
is  only  an  incident,  a  trivial  incident,  one  might 
say,  to  the  traveller  who  goes  to  that  land  of 
wonder  and  of  mystery.  Egypt  is  really  a  tomb, 
a  vast,  impressive  mausoleum.  Pyramids,  tem- 
ples, tombs  of  many  kinds  and  impressive  forms 
created  by  a  race  that  lived  on  the  banks  of  the 
Nile  from  five  to  ten  thousand  years  ago  testify 
to  the  universality,  to  the  sovereignty,  to  the 
inevitableness  for  a  primitive  but  highly  gifted 
race  of  the  belief  in  the  reality  of  life  after  death. 

To  me  there  is  something  extremely  impressive 
in  this  phenomenon.  Human  beings  who  lived 
many  millenniums  ago,  who  in  the  morning  of 
their  day  rose  up  out  of  the  desert  sands  into 
which  again  they  swiftly  disappeared,  but  not 
before  they  had  left  a  monumental  witness  that 
has  few  equals  in  majesty  or  impressiveness  of 
their  belief  in  the  reality  of  life  beyond  death. 
The  river,  the  greatest  wonder  of  the  land,  that 
threads  its  way  between  the  two  banks  covered 
with  unfading  beauty,  takes  up  into  its  murmur 
the  pathos,  the  humanity,  the  faith  of  these 
vanished  races,  and  utters  in  its  own  low,  tender 
music  their  triumph:  "Thanks  be  to  God  who 
giveth  us  the  victory  through  instinct." 

Human  beings  taken  in  the  mass,  in  the  million 
over  the  globe,  through  historic  time,  have  had 


324     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

little  faculty  for  reasoning;  they  have  had  little 
chance  to  ascend  into  transcendental  experiences; 
they  have  not  been  neglected,  the  Infinite  has 
cared  for  them;  they  have  felt  dimly,  but  with  a 
sovereign  certainty,  that 

"Life  is  not  as  idle  ore, 
But  iron  dug  from  central  gloom, 
And  heated  hot  with  burning  fears. 
And  dipt  in  baths  of  hissing  tears, 
And  batter' d  with  the  shocks  of  doom 
To  shape  and  use." 

And  that  world  of  belief,  so  various,  crude,  imma- 
ture; so  luxuriant,  impressive,  prophetic,  is  the 
issue  of  instinct.  None  the  less,  perhaps  all  the 
more,  is  it  worthy  of  regard,  since  instinct  is  an 
index  of  what  the  Universe  has  done  for  man, 
and  not  what  the  individual  man  has  done  for 
himself. 

Reason  and  faith  must  at  last  debate  this  grave 
question,  as  is  the  case  with  every  other  belief. 
Every  opinion  must  finally  come  into  the  court  of 
reason;  every  law  and  custom;  all  our  views,  do- 
mestic, economic,  political,  religious,  must  come 
into  the  high  court  of  reason  to  be  tested,  cross- 
examined  ;  those  that  endure  the  trial  are  invested 
with  new  authority;  those  that  cannot  stand  that 
fiery  ordeal  are  suspected  and  relegated  to  an 
inferior  rank.  It  would  be  a  serious  error  to  think 
that  this  is  not  a  great  process,  that  this  world  of 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  325 

examining  reason  is  not  a  vast  and  precious  world 
and  one  full  of  hope. 

The  first  issue  is  uncertainty,  confusion,  bewil- 
derment. What  is  truth?  What  will  stand? 
What  have  we  left?  What  is  back  of  us  and  our 
previous  faith  and  all  our  precious  possessions? 
That  is  the  cry  inevitably.  Take,  for  example, 
the  Bible;  it  is  not  to  us  exactly  the  book  that 
it  was  to  men  and  women  of  New  England  two 
generations  ago.  In  my  judgment  it  is  a  greater 
book;  at  any  rate,  it  is  a  different  book,  it  requires 
more  thought,  more  study,  a  higher  understand- 
ing to  appreciate  and  apply  its  worth  than  it  did 
in  the  olden  time.  Here  is  confusion,  uncertainty, 
bewilderment,  and  these  moods  are  well-nigh 
universal  among  intelligent  people.  We  cannot 
reverse  the  day;  things  must  go  on  to  their  full, 
inevitable  issue. 

The  external  world,  the  world  of  nature,  how 
perfectly  clear,  how  absolutely  simple  and  sure 
it  seems  to  common-sense.  There  are  the  things 
out  beyond  us  in  space;  they  are  colored,  reso- 
nant, hard  and  soft,  appealing  to  touch,  appeal- 
ing to  all  our  senses.  That  world  of  order  and 
stability  and  beauty,  how  simple,  lucid  and  per- 
fectly certain  it  is  to  the  ordinary  mind.  Look 
now  at  that  world  through  the  eyes  of  the  physi- 
cist. It  is  dissoluble  into  little  bits  of  things  called 
atoms,  and  those  atoms  are  dissoluble  each  into  a 


326      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

million  electrons  inside  the  atom,  and  these  fade 
away  into  strains,  into  motions,  so  faint  as  to  be 
incapable  of  appealing  to  sense  through  the 
strongest  instrument  of  which  science  has  any 
knowledge.  This  is  the  universe  that  we  thought 
was  so  clear  and  simple  and  stable;  it  has  been 
analyzed  into  a  congregation  of  ghosts.  One 
thing  may  be  said  about  it,  no  sane  man  denies 
its  reality,  and  every  physicist  contends  that  his 
world  is  vastly  more  wonderful  than  the  world  of 
common-sense ! 

That  is  essentially  the  issue  under  reasonable 
treatment  in  the  world  of  faith.  It  is  no  longer 
the  clear,  orderly,  simple  unquestionable  world  of 
our  childhood  or  of  the  primitive  moods  of  the 
race;  it  has  become  a  very  different  thing  under 
scholarly  research,  under  philosophic  thought, 
under  the  active  mind  of  the  world.  But  two 
things  may  be  said  about  it  with  confidence;  it  is 
real,  men  do  not  spend  their  energies  upon  noth- 
ing; and,  second,  it  is  infinitely  more  wonderful, 
that  world  of  spirit,  under  the  searching  light  of 
reason  than  it  was  in  the  calm,  unquestioning 
light  of  instinct. 

Here  we  meet  the  Athenian  philosopher  Soc- 
rates, who  faced  death  in  the  strength  of  reason. 
What  has  he  to  say?  He  reduces  the  question  of 
the  future  life  to  two  possibilities.  A  clearer  re- 
duction of  the  whole  subject  was  never  made,  one 


TUE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  327 

might  say  could  not  be  made.  Death  is  either  one 
of  two  things;  it  is  either  absolute  extinction,  the 
loss  of  all  conscious  being  whatsoever,  and  all 
eternity  in  that  case  is  like  a  perfect,  dreamless 
sleep.  The  other  possibility  is  that  death  means 
the  migration  of  the  soul  to  another  world  and 
the  entering  into  a  fellowship  with  other  souls 
there,  a  far  better  fellowship  for  the  good  soul 
than  for  the  bad.  For  the  good  soul  death  is  the 
introduction  to  a  glorious  communion  with  the 
illustrious  spirits  that  have  gathered  in  Hades, 
famous  men  and  famous  women. 

Socrates  sides  with  this  second  alternative.  In 
the  "  Phaedo,"  if  we  regard  this  dialogue  as  ideal- 
ized history,  Socrates  gives  his  reasons  for  his 
faith.  He  gives  two,  among  others,  that  are  appli- 
cable to  the  mystery  as  we  view  it  today.  What 
is  death  .5^  Death  is  the  reduction  of  a  compound 
to  its  elements,  the  dissolving  of  an  organism  into 
its  constituent  parts.  Death  applies  only  to  a 
compound  of  elements,  to  an  organism  of  constit- 
uent parts;  it  does  not  mean  the  destruction  of 
any  one  of  these  elements  or  parts.  It  means 
nothing  more  than  the  dissolution  of  that  whole, 
of  that  organism,  of  that  compound.  Socrates 
claims  that  the  soul  is  not  a  compound;  it  is  one, 
indivisible,  uniform;  it  is  simplicity  itself.  You 
cannot  find  a  lower  term  to  which  to  reduce  it. 
It  is  pure,  indivisible  self-consciousness.   Death 


328     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

has  therefore  no  meaning  as  appHed  to  the  human 
spirit.  The  second  argument  of  Socrates  of  mod- 
ern value  is  that  this  indivisible,  irreducible,  in- 
dissoluble spirit  of  man  shares  the  eternal  life 
of  the  Universe  and  therefore  takes  on  the  char- 
acter of  everlastingness  that  belongs  to  the  life  of 
the  Universe. 

In  the  strength  of  these  insights  and  convic- 
tions this  man  met  death.  The  scene,  surpassed 
in  impressiveness  only  by  one  other  in  human 
history,  is  an  active  world-memory.  Socrates 
drank  the  cup  of  hemlock  with  the  utmost  cheer- 
fulness. When  all  present  were  dissolved  in  tears 
he  chided  them  for  their  grief,  called  upon  them 
to  join  him  in  good  hope;  he  walked  about  until 
the  drug  began  to  take  effect;  then  he  lay  down, 
as  directed  by  the  executioner.  Thus  he  remained 
quietly  awaiting  the  end,  and  when  the  numbness 
and  paralysis  were  perceived  in  the  region  below 
the  heart,  he  uncovered  his  face  and  spoke,  which 
were  his  last  words:  "Crito,  we  owe  a  cock  to 
Asklepios;  be  sure  and  pay  it,  and  do  not 
forget." 

The  time-world  seemed  to  this  great  man  a 
disease;  death  meant  the  cure  of  all  mortal  ills; 
for  this  deliverance  he  was  in  debt  to  the  god  of 
health;  the  Divine  Physician  has  saved  him  from 
delusion  and  pain;  under  his  treatment  Socrates 
was  passing  into  the  true  life.   "We  owe  a  cock 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  329 

to  Asklepios;  be  sure  and  pay  it,  and  do  not 
forget." 

When  we  turn  to  Jesus  and  his  attitude  toward 
death  we  take  a  step  beyond  mere  reasoning.  We 
begin,  in  Jesus,  with  the  profoundest  spiritual 
experience  of  which  the  world  has  any  record;  we 
begin,  in  the  case  of  the  apostles  of  Jesus,  with  an 
experience  derived  from  God,  through  their 
Master,  of  a  new  type.  The  question  now  is. 
What  means  the  life  of  this  Master?  What  is  its 
value  to  God?  What  its  significance  for  the 
world  of  men?  The  answer  is  at  hand:  "Whom 
God  hath  raised  up  having  loosed  the  pains  of 
death :  because  it  was  not  possible  that  he  should 
be  holden  of  it."  ^  The  question  succeeding  this 
is.  What  is  the  meaning  primarily  of  Christian 
experience  and  the  Christian  view  of  man's  rela- 
tion to  the  conscience  and  pity  of  the  Infinite? 
The  case  here  is  life  with  a  unique  content,  seek- 
ing insight  into  the  meaning  for  time  and  eter- 
nity, of  that  content.  It  is  this  that  justifies  one 
in  seeking  in  the  teaching  and  personality  of  Jesus 
a  unique  help  in  our  thought  of  the  mystery  of 
the  end.  His  insight  in  fathoming  the  worth  of 
life  is  that  to  which  we  naturally  turn.  It  is  in 
accord  with  custom  thus  to  do.  When  a  child  is 
gravely  ill  we  send  for  the  wise  physician;  we 
want  his  skill  and  wisdom,  and  we  desire  them  at 
1  Acts  2:  24. 


330      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

once.  When  we  are  confused,  as  we  stand  at  the 
parting  of  the  ways  and  know  not  which  of  the 
two  clearly  to  take,  we  turn  to  our  wise  and  true 
friend  for  advice;  we  want  his  help.  When  we  are 
perplexed  over  the  ultimate  meanings  of  this 
mysterious  life  of  ours,  and  the  wild,  infinite, 
embracing  universe,  we  turn  to  the  minds  of  the 
great  prophets  and  seers,  whose  insight  is  greater 
than  ours,  whose  minds  are  nobler  and  surer. 

And  precisely  in  the  same  way  we  turn  to 
Jesus.  His  insight  is  supreme  into  life  and  into 
death,  and  his  bearing,  both  in  life  and  in  death, 
is  the  highest  that  we  know;  he  becomes  for  us 
the  highest  mind  on  this  subject;  we  go  to  him  as 
to  our  surest  authority.  His  welcome  is  in  these 
words:  " If  it  were  not  so  I  would  have  told  you." 
The  perfect  honesty  of  his  mind  is  evident,  his 
perfect  candor;  he  has  no  interest  but  the  truth. 

Here  we  come  upon  that  in  Jesus,  and  in  his 
teaching,  which  all  great-minded  men  have  al- 
ways recognized;  his  reserve  in  speaking  about 
the  future  world.  He  says  amazingly  little  about 
the  life  beyond  death;  he  gives  us  no  map  of  the 
heavenly  world.  There  is  this  great  reserve.  His 
chief  ideas  are  these :  the  Infinite  Father  of  men, 
the  true  life  of  the  individual,  that  of  fellowship 
with  God,  his  whole  life  set  in  the  blaze  of  God's 
presence  and  his  whole  career  run  in  the  sense  of 
the  sovereign  reality  of  his  Father  in  heaven;  the 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  331 

true  life  of  society  a  kingdom  of  God;  the  critical- 
ness  of  the  life  that  now  is,  every  man  stand- 
ing between  two  tremendous  possibilities,  —  the 
possibility  of  a  judgment  against  him  in  eternity, 
the  possibility  of  a  judgment  in  his  favor  in 
eternity.  These  are  the  great  mountain  ranges  of 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  that  stand  clear  and  grand 
against  the  universe  as  a  background  of  mystery, 
and  all  the  other  things  in  his  teaching  lie  some- 
what in  shadow.  Still  there  is  something  definite 
said  by  Jesus  about  the  hereafter,  and  it  is  all  the 
more  impressive  because  of  the  economy  of  his 
speech.  There  are  times  when  eloquence  is  a 
plague,  what  we  want  are  a  few  clear  sure  words, 
coined  by  true  insight,  that  we  can  carry  with  us 
in  our  memory  for  the  illumination  of  the  totality 
of  experience.  All  the  more  impressive,  therefore, 
are  the  few,  reserved,  weighty,  solemn  words  of 
Jesus  about  the  soul  and  death.  Let  me  take  two 
of  these  utterances  as  representative  of  his 
teaching. 

"  God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead  but  of  the  liv- 
ing; for  all  Hve  unto  him."  ^  Here  and  there  alike 
God  is  the  infinite,  ultimate  environment  of 
souls.  That  is  the  thought.  God,  for  all  rational 
creatures,  for  the  entire  race  of  men,  in  their 
spiritual  nature,  in  all  worlds,  is  their  ultimate 
environment;  they  are  in  contact  with  him,  they 
1  Matt.  22:32. 


832     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

live  upon  him,  his  life  is  their  life,  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  death  in  that  environment  constituted 
by  the  Infinite  Father  of  men  in  relation  to  whom 
all  souls  live  in  time,  and  in  eternity.  God  is  not 
the  God  of  the  dead  but  of  the  living,  for  all  live 
unto  him. 

According  to  this  conception  of  Jesus,  death  is 
of  the  least  possible  significance,  it  is  a  mere  inci- 
dent in  a  spiritual  career,  a  single  phase  and  that 
of  only  momentary  concern  in  the  pilgrimage  of  a 
spirit  born  of  the  Eternal  Spirit  and  destined 
to  live  in  him  forever. 

The  second  passage  is  even  more  familiar,  it 
contains  the  words  of  Jesus  to  the  penitent 
thief,  "Verily  I  say  unto  thee.  Today  shalt  thou 
be  with  me  in  paradise."  ^  Here  are  two  worlds 
undergoing  the  same  eclipse.  You  see  them  as 
they  touch  the  penumbra,  as  they  move  together 
toward  the  deep  heart  of  the  shadow;  then  they 
move  out  into  the  penumbra,  out  into  the  light. 
Those  two  worlds  are  untouched  in  their  integ- 
rity, nothing  has  in  any  way  interfered  with  their 
essential  being;  only  a  shadow  fell  on  them  both 
at  the  same  time  and  they  passed  from  light 
through  the  shadow  together  into  light  again. 
Thus  Jesus  seems  to  have  thought  of  himself  and 
this  poor  thief.  They  went  from  the  light  of  per- 
fect health  into  the  deep  shadow  that  fell  upon 
1  Luke  23:  43. 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  333 

them  both,  —  the  shadow  of  death;  but  there  is 
no  break  in  the  continuity;  no  pause,  nothing 
touches  the  integrity  of  either  soul,  the  true  being 
of  which  goes  on;  they  are  to  emerge  from  the 
shadow  two  moral,  self-conscious,  accountable 
beings,  in  fellowship,  into  the  light  of  God's 
presence.  That  is  the  teaching  of  Jesus;  death  a 
shadow,  unable  to  do  more  than  obscure  the  be- 
ing of  those  who  are  under  it,  to  their  friends. 

What  does  Jesus  consider  the  sovereign  thing 
in  life?  We  have  the  answer  in  his  own  words: 
*'We  must  work  the  works  of  him  that  sent  me 
while  it  is  day:  the  night  cometh  when  no  man 
can  work."  ^  In  the  thought  of  Jesus  duty  was 
supreme.  He  had  his  vocation;  he  came  as  the 
Revealer  of  the  Infinite  Father,  as  God's  prophet 
to  his  people,  and  to  mankind.  He  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto  but  to  minister;  that  service  he 
must  render,  he  must  finish.  As  in  a  cloudless  day 
the  sunlight  goes  everywhere,  floods  the  whole  sky 
and  the  whole  earth,  so  in  the  mind  of  Jesus  the 
sense  of  duty  was  omnipresent;  it  was  the  most 
solemn,  the  most  pervasive,  the  most  tremendous 
influence  in  his  being;  with  this  as  his  central 
conviction  he  could  do  no  other  than  die,  and 
worlds  upon  worlds  of  worthless  thought  have 
gathered  round  this  greatest  scene  in  history.  He 
could  do  no  other  than  die,  unless  he  were  willing 

1  John  9:  4. 


834      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

to  be  a  traitor  to  his  truth,  false  to  God  whose 
Revealer  he  was,  false  to  the  human  beings  whom 
he  came  to  enlighten  and  save.  It  was  his  duty 
that  led  him  to  death. 

The  Lord's  Prayer,  in  its  opening  words,  con- 
tains the  great  insight  of  Jesus  into  the  character 
of  the  universe  and  into  the  nature,  vocation,  and 
destiny  of  man.  *'Our  Father  who  art  in  heav- 
en.'* The  one  humanity,  in  relation  to  the  In- 
finite Being,  as  a  child  to  a  father.  If  Jesus  is 
right  in  his  thought  of  the  character  of  the 
Eternal,  and  if  he  is  right  in  his  idea  of  the  char- 
acter and  capacity  of  man,  argument  about  the 
reality  of  life  after  death  is  superfluous.  If  God 
is  the  infinite  loving  Father,  and  if  human  beings 
are  members  of  the  family  of  God,  since  we  can- 
not imagine  a  normal  human  father  allowing,  if 
he  could  help  it,  a  child  of  his  to  pass  out  of  the 
world  in  death,  it  follow^s  that  the  Infinite  Father 
cannot  be  conceived  as  consenting  that  his  chil- 
dren should  be  swallowed  in  darkness  and  cease 
to  be.  If  we  deny  immortality  we  must  deny 
the  Fatherhood  of  God;  if  we  reject  the  conclu- 
sion of  Christian  faith  we  must  deny  the  truth  of 
its  premiss. 

IV 

If  it  is  said  that  belief  in  immortality  is  the 
issue  of  over-confidence  in  God's  character  and 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  335 

man's  worth  for  God,  it  should  be  set  down  in 
reply  that  unbelief  and  despair  of  the  future  are 
the  shadow  of  human  weakness.  We  transfer 
man's  limitations  to  the  Infinite;  we  err  when  we 
reason  from  human  impossibilities  to  the  divine. 
Since  the  universe  is  rich  beyond  our  utmost 
dream,  and  science  is  the  magic  by  which,  in  one 
department,  we  advance  in  this  experience  of 
everlasting  surprise,  nothing  could  be  less  rea- 
sonable than  to  limit  our  faith  to  the  present 
state  of  our  knowledge. 

Life  itself  is  the  primary,  inscrutable  mystery. 
Herein  lies  its  greatness.  If  it  were  empty  it 
would  be  no  mystery;  because  it  is  unfathomable 
it  is  great.  The  highest  intellects,  for  many  thou- 
sands of  years,  have  been  studying  it;  the  highest 
races  have  tried  to  compass  its  utmost  meaning. 
They  have  done  wonderful  things;  they  have  il- 
lumined vast  spaces  in  it.  Still  our  knowledge  of 
human  life  is  like  the  clearings  in  the  interminable 
forest,  beautiful  with  light,  color,  productivity, 
human  homes  and  the  music  of  human  industry 
and  fellowship,  but  infinitesimal  when  measured 
against  the  unexplored,  the  uncleared,  the  un- 
known. 

If  human  life  is  an  uncomprehended  fullness 
how  much  more  the  Infinite.  The  sea  is  a  mys- 
tery, an  uncomprehended  wonder;  the  infinite 
depth  of  space  is  a  vaster  wonder  and  who  by 


336      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTEBY 

searching  can  find  it  out?  The  resources  of  the 
Infinite  are  infinite,  and  if  we  can  beheve  that  the 
Infinite  mystery  is  a  mystery  of  kindness  toward 
man  we  are  justified  in  nothing  but  the  mood  of 
hope.  Our  ultimate  questions,  therefore,  con- 
cern what  the  Infinite  can  do,  and  what  he  is 
likely  to  do  with  the  human  soul. 

There  is  only  one  restriction  upon  God,  so  far 
as  we  can  see;  he  cannot  contradict  himself;  he 
cannot  act  unworthily  of  himself.  Beyond  this 
there  are,  for  God,  no  impossibilities.  We  may 
not  be  able  to  see  how  mind  can  live  apart  from 
the  brain,  how  soul  can  communicate  with  soul 
apart  from  the  body,  how  there  can  be  the  sense 
of  social  union  among  disembodied  spirits,  how 
across  the  diameter  of  time  and  space  those  who 
have  loved  each  other  here  shall  be  able  to  find 
each  other  there,  how  or  where  the  kingdom  of 
these  invisible  persons  can  exist.  These  and 
many  other  similar  questions  we  may  be  utterly 
unable  to  answer;  they  may  imply  impossibili- 
ties for  us. 

Our  ignorance,  however,  does  not  apply  to 
God,  our  impotence  is  no  limitation  upon  his 
power.  Whatever  he  wills  comes  to  pass.  He 
willed  that  we  should  be  born  as  human  beings 
in  this  world  and  born  we  were  of  the  parents 
and  at  the  time  appointed.  Here  is  the  initial 
mystery  which  no  finite  mind  can  fathom.   Why 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  337 

were  we  born  at  all?  Why  were  we  made  rational 
existences  in  the  first  instance?  By  chance? 
That  requires  more  faith  than  any  other  view. 
Think  of  the  countless  chances  that  we  should  not 
be  born,  or  that  being  born  we  should  not  live; 
or  that  living  we  should  find  life  without  mean- 
ing, that  it  should  fail  to  fit  into  a  human  fel- 
lowship, discover  a  home,  a  task,  an  expanding 
rational  existence,  a  faith  in  the  universe,  a  reli- 
gion. How  did  this  chance  to  be,  and  how  did  all 
other  things  chance  to  accord  with  the  individual 
and  social  chance?  This  view  takes  a  more  vivid 
imagination  and  a  vaster  capacity  for  credulity 
than  any  other.  To  the  Greeks  the  speech  of  the 
philosopher  who  first  recognized  indwelling  Mind 
as  the  cause  of  the  world  and  all  its  order  seemed 
like  that  of  a  sober  person  in  comparison  with 
the  random  talk  of  intoxicated  men.  We  assent 
when  Bacon  says:  "I  had  rather  believe  all  the 
fables  in  the  Legend,  and  in  the  Talmud  and  in 
the  Koran  than  that  this  universal  frame  is  with- 
out a  Mind."  The  least  rational,  the  most  im- 
probable of  all  theories  of  existence  is  that  of 
chance,  which  means  that  the  universe  has  in  it 
no  Absolute  mind. 

If  God  wills  that  we  men  shall  exist  in  another 
world  what  can  prevent  our  existing?  If  God  is 
for  us  who  can  be  against  us?  All  the  difficulties 
involved  in  our  existing  after  death  were  involved 


838      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

in  our  existing  in  the  first  instance.  Surely  he 
who  brought  us  into  being  against  all  the  seeming 
impossibilities  that  stood  in  the  way,  can  sustain 
us  in  being  against  all  the  difficulties  that  may 
beset  our  existence  beyond  death.  The  storms 
and  glooms  that  gird  our  planet,  do  not  obscure 
the  outlook  or  obstruct  the  way  of  the  stars.  The 
impossibilities  of  man's  outlook  upon  the  world, 
are  not  in  the  way  of  the  Infinite  Will.  It  rested 
with  God  to  say  whether  we  should  live  at  all; 
it  rests  with  God  and  with  God  alone  to  say 
whether  we  shall  live  again. 

The  Sophoclean  Fragment  occurs  to  one  here : 
"Things  teachable  I  learn,  things  discoverable  I 
seek,  things  desired  I  know  from  the  gods."  Is 
any  hint  obtainable  as  to  the  will  of  God,  in  re- 
gard to  the  souls  of  men  after  death?  Many 
would  answer  that  there  is  none.  Many  among 
those  who  cherish  hope  would  answer  in  the 
words  of  Simmias  in  the  "  Phaedo  *' :  "  It  seems  to 
me  as  indeed  it  may  to  you,  Socrates,  that  sure 
knowledge  about  such  matters,  in  the  present 
life,  is  either  impossible  or  very  difficult;  yet 
again  to  fail  to  test  in  every  way  the  common 
faith  about  them  and  not  to  persist  till  his  power 
of  investigation  of  them  has  given  out,  is  the  part 
of  a  very  weak  man.  For  we  are  under  bonds  in 
respect  of  them  to  effect  one  of  these  things, 
either  to  learn  from  others  or  discover  for  one's 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  339 

self  or  else,  if  this  is  impossible,  to  take  the  best 
of  human  arguments,  and  the  one  least  open  to 
objection,  embarking  upon  this,  as  upon  a  raft, 
to  venture  to  make  the  voyage  of  life;  unless  in- 
deed one  were  able,  in  a  safer  and  less  dangerous 
way,  upon  a  surer  craft,  some  divine  word,  to 
accomplish  the  passage"?  ^ 

Socrates  did  not  rest  here;  neither  did  Plato. 
After  two  thousand  years  of  the  influence  of 
Jesus  as  to  the  character  of  the  Eternal  and  the 
meaning  of  human  life,  something  more  positive, 
it  would  seem,  might  be  attained.  For  this  more 
positive  faith  we  are  to  look  in  the  intimations 
of  God's  will  in  the  life  of  the  soul.  The  capacity 
for  a  share  in  the  higher  life  of  the  race  is  some- 
thing; this  capacity  is  denied  realization  here. 
Think  how  many  millions  of  human  beings,  in 
whom  these  high  instincts  and  capacities  exist, 
are  little  more  during  their  entire  existence  in  this 
world  than  beasts  of  burden  of  our  sad  civiliza- 
tion. Think  of  other  millions  caught  in  the  trap 
of  temptation  who  are  unable  to  break  away  into 
anything  like  a  human  existence;  think  of  still 
other  multitudes  who  under  the  dire  calamity  of 
luxury  and  idleness  have  trod  the  weary  circles 
of  pleasure  till  their  higher  capacities  have  been 
reduced  to  shadows,  till  their  souls  have  shrunk 
to  the  meagrest  remnant  of  reality.  In  all  these 
1  Phaedo,  85  C,  D. 


340     ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

millions  are  lodged,  in  one  degree  or  another,  the 
universal  gifts;  in  none  of  them  do  these  gifts 
gain  any  impressive  development;  in  most  of 
them  there  is  little  or  no  development  at  all. 

This  consideration  will  not  affect  the  mind  of  a 
pessimist;  rather  will  he  see  in  this  defeat  of  the 
end  of  life  a  sure'sign  of  the  universal  contradic- 
tion of  human  aspiration.  To  a  candid  mind, 
however,  potency  is,  in  one  degree  or  another, 
prophecy. 

More  impressive,  perhaps,  is  the  worth  of 
pure  human  love.  The  destruction  of  worth  and 
worthlessness,  the  burial  of  Judas  and  Jesus  in 
the  same  everlasting  darkness  is  nearly  unthink- 
able, on  the  ground  that  the  Universe  is  rational 
and  has  a  character  of  even  average  decency. 
The  total  rational  and  ethical  confusion,  that 
w^ould  follow  the  sinking  of  all  honor  and  dis- 
honor in  the  same  abyss  of  death,  should  if  pos- 
sible be  avoided.  It  cannot  be  wrong  to  assume 
that  the  Universal  Being  is  deeper  in  his  appreci- 
ation of  worth  and  beauty  than  we.  That  mortal 
man  is  more  just  than  God  has  from  of  old  seemed 
to  many  great  minds  to  be  the  incredible  hypoth- 
esis. To  be  sure  this  means  divisional  immortal- 
ity, the  conservation  of  the  wheat,  and  perhaps 
the  commitment  of  the  chaff  to  the  consuming 
fire.  Other  considerations  may,  however,  obvi- 
ate that  conclusion. 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  END  341 

More  impressive  still,  at  least  for  many  minds, 
and  of  universal  application,  is  the  sense  of  duty. 
Some  have  claimed  that  the  modern  world  has 
lost  its  belief  in  the  life  beyond  death  because  it 
has  lost  its  conscience.  When  we  recognize  a 
moral  order  in  human  society,  when  we  see  this 
moral  order  as  the  image  of  the  moral  order  of 
the  Unseen  world,  when  we  examine  the  sense  of 
accountability  of  man  to  man,  of  man  to  his 
Maker,  and  consider  the  unescapable  awards  of 
action,  in  the  region  of  character;  when  we  hab- 
ituate the  mind  to  the  conception  of  life  as  under 
obligation  to  deal  justly,  love  kindness,  and  walk 
humbly  with  the  Eternal,  when  we  review  our 
deeds,  consider  and  are  afraid,  there  rises  before 
one  a  very  serious  word  about  the  reality  of  life 
after  death.  We  cannot  escape  so  easily  our  mis- 
deeds and  our  failure  as  to  sink  all  in  endless 
death.  We  must  live,  whether  we  wish  to  live  or 
not;  we  must  face  the  record  of  a  moral  being  and 
abide  by  the  Judgment  of  eternity.  "Let  us  eat 
and  drink  for  tomorrow  we  die,"  is  the  creed  of 
the  animal;  "Awake  to  righteousness  and  sin 
not,"  is  the  faith  inspired  and  justified  by  the 
accountability  of  man  to  God. 

There  is  a  word  on  human  destiny  concealed 
in  the  heart  of  the  campaign  against  unrighteous- 
ness. The  idea  of  redemption  is  central  in  Chris- 
tianity; it  is  central  in  human  life,  the  passion  to 


342      ASPECTS  OF  THE  INFINITE  MYSTERY 

recover  and  purge  the  race  and  the  universe  from 
moral  evil.  The  cry  of  the  highest  souls  is  for  a 
chance  to  fight  it  out  on  this  line  if  it  takes  all 
eternity.  The  greatness  of  the  desire  to  live  for- 
ever is  here  plain. 

*' Glory  of  Virtue,  to  fight,  to  struggle,  to  right  the 

wrong  — 
Nay,  but  she  aim'd  not  at  glory,  no  lover  of  glory 

she: 
Give  her  the  glory  of  going  on,  and  still  to  be.'* 

One  thinks  of  life  after  death  here  as  the  condi- 
tion essential  to  the  attainment  of  the  noblest 
end.  The  devil  must  be  beaten  on  every  field  and 
on  all  the  continents  of  being;  we  ask  for  a  chance 
to  fight  for  the  moral  integrity  of  the  universe;  we 
ask  to  be  on  the  field  at  the  end,  to  see  the  stain- 
less universe  of  souls  rise  in  cloudless,  endless 
glory.  Such  a  wish  has  the  honor  of  the  Infinite 
in  its  heart;  it  is  more  of  a  wish  to  serve  than  a 
wish  to  live,  the  passion  to  fight  and  win  than 
the  passion  to  survive.  The  militant  redemptive 
instinct  rages  in  these  lines  of  Stevenson: 

**If  to  feel,  in  the  ink  of  the  slough. 
And  the  sink  of  the  mire. 
Veins  of  glory  and  fire 

Run  through  and  transpierce  and  transpire. 
And  a  secret  purpose  of  glory  in  every  part, 
And  the  answering  glory  of  battle  fill  my  heart; 
To  thrill  with  the  joy  of  girded  men 
To  go  on  forever  and  fail  and  go  on  again. 


THE  MYSTERY  OF   TUE- END  343 

And  be  mauled  to  the  earth  and  arise, 

And  contend  for  the  shade  of  a  word  and  a  thing 

not  seen  with  the  eyes; 
With  the  half  of  a  broken  hope  for  a  pillow  at  night 
That  somehow  the  right  is  the  right 
And  the  smooth  shall  bloom  from  the  rough: 
Lord,  if  that  were  enough?  " 

The  surest  word  is  in  the  communion  of  saints 
and  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  world 
of  the  dead,  active  in  the  soul  of  the  living,  begets 
faith  in  the  life  that  shall  not  see  death.  The 
soul  of  God  present  and  potent  in  the  daily  experi- 
ence of  devout  and  dutiful  men,  turns  faith  into  a 
deep,  sure  trust.  "  I  know  whom  I  have  believed." 
The  noble  statue,  the  Indian  on  horseback,  in 
rapt  devotion  to  the  Great  Spirit,  that  adorns  and 
consecrates  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts, 
silently  bears  witness  to  the  supreme  wonder  in 
man's  life.  The  horse  and  his  rider  are  in  the 
presence  of  the  same  sovereign  mystery;  the 
horse  is  insensible,  unaware  of  the  transcendent 
Soul,  unspoken  to  by  the  universal,  awful  Love- 
liness; the  rider  is  oblivious  of  everything  save 
God.  He  has  come  to  a  moment  when  he  knows 
that  he  was  made  to  live  in  God,  and  to  live  in 
God  forever. 

THE    END 


mDEX 


Absolute  Spirit,  the  imma- 
nence of,  131. 

Absolute  worth,  17-22. 

Academy,  the,  151. 

Action,  substitution  of  idea 
for,  a  source  of  despair,  259. 

Addison,  Joseph,  quoted,  29. 

Addresses  of  Dr.  Gordon,  viii. 

Ancient  documents,  way  of 
approaching,  165. 

Animals,  mind  in,  51;  mental 
activity  of,  53;  love  of,  for 
their  offspring,  98;  pure 
self-seekers,  232;  grief  of, 
brief,  307. 

Antisthenes,  disciple  of  So- 
crates, 150. 

Appearance  and  reality,  60. 

Architecture,  creative  activ- 
ity in,  has  love  as  its  origin, 
97. 

Aristippus,  disciple  of  So- 
crates, 150. 

Aristophanes,  and  Socrates, 
152-54;  his  portrait  of 
Socrates,  164. 

Aristotle,  says  all  philosophy 
begins  in  wonder,  14;  his 
"Ethics,"  32-35;  and 
Dante,  33,  34;  on  the 
maxim,  "No  one  errs  with 
his  will,"  46;  on  self-move- 
ment and  sensibility  as  the 
signs  of  life,  51 ;  on  the  law 
of  contradiction,  145;  pos- 
sessed by  his  object,  204; 
his  refrain,  "No  man  can 
energize  continuously,  252; 
and  education,  271;  eter- 
nity in  the  philosophy  of, 
318. 


Art,  and  religion,  difference 
between,  78;  is  one-sided, 
78,  79;  and  hope,  173;  in- 
spired by  beauty  of  nature, 
215,  226,  227. 

Arts,  creative  activity  in,  has 
love  as  its  origin,  98. 

Assumption,  of  Christian 
faith,  the,  86;  love  by,  114. 

Augustine,  quoted,  73,  270; 
influence  of  his  mother, 
Monica,  in  his  life,  118;  a 
type  of  multitudes,  258. 

Bacon,  Francis,  quoted,  29, 
337. 

Baptism,  87,  88. 

Beatific  vision,  34,  35. 

Beauty,  the  protest  of,  to  the 
naturalistic  error,  233. 

Beethoven,  204. 

Belgium,  violation  of,  sur- 
passes records  of  Indian 
jungle,  265. 

Berkeley,  George,  319. 

Bible,  the,  on  the  beginning  of 
wisdom,  14;  as  test  of  truth, 
86;  and  historical  criticism, 
137-39,  143-45;  the  inspi- 
ration of,  207,  208;  a  differ- 
ent book  today,  325. 

Biographies,  few  good,  164, 
165. 

Birth,  mystery  of,  306,  336, 
337. 

Books,  great,  5. 

Bradley,  Dr.  F.  H.,  57,  58,  60, 
141,  142. 

Browning,  Robert,  ideas  of 
redemption  and  education 
present  in,  284,  287-304. 


346 


INDEX 


Bruno,  Giordano,  58,  319. 

Brutality  of  man,  sense  of, 
a  source  of  despair,  260-69. 

Buddhism,  the  good  of,  is  the 
negation  of  life,  35,  76;  the 
religion  of  despair,  35,  76; 
is  atheism,  35,  36,  76;  the 
ethics  of,  76;  a  one-sided 
religion,  76,  77. 

Building,  inevitable,  7. 

Bunyan,  John,  258. 

Burns,  Robert,  quoted,  43, 
44,  235;  a  humanist,  219- 
21;  the  Infinite  in,  318. 

Bushnell,  Horace,  170. 

Butler,  Bishop,  quoted,  161. 

Byron,  Lord,  quoted,  75. 

Caird,  Edward,  141. 

Caird,  John,  141. 

Calvinists,  the,  58. 

Campbell,  Thomas,  quoted,  x. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  letter  of,  to 
Thomas  Erskine,  106;  his 
mother's  spirit  in,  118;  in- 
fluence of  father's  spirit  in, 
120;  his  Norse  myth,  162, 
163;  quoted,  on  Eternity, 
305,  306. 

Cervantes,  262. 

Character,  human,  99,  100; 
personal,  230,  246. 

Cheyne,  Canon,  his  edition  of 
the  book  of  Isaiah,  143, 
144. 

Christian  faith,  absolute  love 
of  God  the  assumption  of, 
86. 

Christianity,  definition  of,  36, 
37;  the  good  of,  37;  greater 
than  Buddhism,  37;  will 
endure,  38;  is  the  ultimate 
illumination  and  peace,  38; 
discloses  moral  structure  of 
human  world,  39;  admits 
no  metaphysical  but  holds 
to   a  moral  Absolute,  60; 


the  principle  which  leads 
to,  84,  85. 

Church,  the,  as  a  saving  insti- 
tution, 2. 

Classics,  the  great,  why  they 
call  upon  our  homage,  5. 

Communion  of  saints,  343. 

Conscience,  241-43. 

Contradiction,  law  of,  125, 
145. 

Copernicus,  186,  204,  213. 

Creative  activity  has  love  as 
its  origin,  97,  98. 

Critic,  the  task  of  the,  137-40. 

Criticism,  historical,  137-40; 
itself  needs  criticism,  139, 
144;  imitation  in,  142-45; 
destructive  in  religion,  143. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  8,  9. 

Daniel,  quoted,  73. 

Dante,  and  Aristotle,  32,  33; 
example  of  law  of  hospit- 
able mind,  123;  the  In- 
finite in,  318. 

Darwin,  Charles,  186,  213. 

Dead,  value  of  the,  to  the 
living,  307-11,  343. 

Death,  whether  it  is  not  life, 
and  life  death,  135;  of 
Jesus,  175-77;  the  mystery 
of,  305-43;  how  men  have 
faced,  321-34;  Socrates'  ar- 
gument on,  326-29;  Jesus* 
conception  of,  331-33. 

Descartes,  319. 

Despair,  moral,  258-65. 

Devil,  the  traditional  con- 
ception of,  43. 

Disciples,  the,  were  host  to 
mind  of  Jesus,  121;  opened 
life  to  the  Infinite,  224. 

Divine  presence  in  the  heart 
of  humanity,  13. 

Dogmatic  belief,  2. 

Dualism  in  man,  the,  230-54; 
accentuated    by    the    reli- 


INDEX 


347 


gious  ideal,  230-32;  the 
problem  of  man's  life  is  to 
unify,  238;  reflected  by 
conscience,  242;  the  en- 
deavor to  overcome,  244- 
50. 

Duality  of  great  religion,  GI- 
GS, 76. 

Duty,  333,  341. 

Earth,  rotation  of,  anecdote 
of  the  man  who  had  dis- 
proved, 146. 

Education,  means  discrimi- 
nating hospitality,  120, 
121;  of  the  disciples,  121; 
system  of,  outlined  in  Deu- 
teronomy, 130,  131;  the 
ideal  of,  253 ;  a  more  serious 
system  of  moral,  needed, 
271,  272;  and  redemption, 
mutually  complementary 
ideas,  283,  284;  and  re- 
demption, ideas  present  in 
Browning's  "Saul,"  284, 
287-304. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  56,  186. 

Egoist,  philosophy  of  the,  110. 

Egypt,  322,  323. 

Elijah,  egoism  of,  110. 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  caricature  of 
his  method  of  writing,  143, 
144;  quoted,  225. 

Emmons,  his  reasoning  on  the 
grandeur  of  God,  57. 

Emotion  in  the  finding  of  the 
living  God,  117. 

End,  the  mystery  of  the, 
305-43. 

Epicureans,  the,  151,  318. 

Erigena,  John  Scotus,  58,  319. 

Erskine,  Thomas,  letter  of 
Carlyle  to,  106. 

Eternal,  the,  as  Absolute 
worth,  16-22;  how  to  select 
the  principle  of  attaining, 
83-85. 


Eternity,  sense  of,  275;  great 
literature  reflects,  317,  318. 

Euclid,  disciple  of  Socrates, 
150. 

Europe,  in  need  of  redemp- 
tion today,  287. 

Evanescent,  the,  27. 

Evil,  not  desired  for  its  own 
evil  sake,  42-44;  belief  in 
triumph  of  good  over,  255; 
attitude  of  Jesus  toward 
good  and,  257;  self -destruc- 
tive force  of,  264,  266,  269- 
75;  often  appears  as  good, 
266,  267;  ultimately  is  seen 
to  be  evil,  267,  268;  moral 
life  of  man  began  through 
experience  of  good  and,  268. 

Exaggeration,  9. 

Experience,  intellectual  pow- 
er addresses  itself  to,  39; 
knowledge  of  that  which  is 
beyond  us  comes  through, 
83;  the  test  of  faith,  108, 
109;  human  world  reducible 
to  four  great  orders  of,  182; 
Christian,  faith  in  immor- 
tality supports  itself  from, 
321,  322,  329-34. 

Expiation  as  explanation  of 
the  death  of  Jesus,  175. 

Fairbairn,  Dr.,  quoted,  36; 
anecdote  of  the  farmer  who 
drove  four  miles  to  hear, 
127. 

Faith,  the  issue  of  the  disci- 
pline of  time  upon  the  free 
mind,  xii,  xiii;  the  tendency 
of  the  world  of,  gains  reflec- 
tion in  individual  minds, 
xii,  xiii;  inevitableness  of 
certain  ideas  of,  7,  8;  mis- 
givings as  to,  8,  9;  time- 
attested,  10;  Christian,  ab- 
solute love  of  God  the  as- 
sumption of,  86;  the  doc- 


348 


INDEX 


trine  of  Fatherhood  in  God 
is  a  doctrine  of,  107;  in 
Jesus,  beginning  of,  199;  in 
God,  beginning  of,  200;  to 
keep  the,  188,  201,  202;  in 
the  ultimate  triumph  of 
good,  255;  the  result  of 
Browning's  poem  "Saul," 
303. 

Fatherhood,  obligation  of,  92, 
93. 

Fatherhood  in  God,  what  is 
meant  by,  90-96;  grounds 
for  belief  in,  97-105;  is  a 
doctrine  of  faith,  not  a  dem- 
onstrated truth,  107;  the 
best  working  hypothesis, 
108. 

Feeling,  we  touch  reality 
through,  184-86;  original- 
ity begins  in,  186. 

Fisher,  Professor,  his  remark 
on  Cheyne's  Isaiah,  144. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  87. 

Freedom,  251-54. 

Friendship,  religion  is  the 
highest,  64;  meaning  of,  64, 
65 ;  a  witness  for  the  love  of 
God  and  the  God  of  love, 
102. 

Garden  of  Eden,  meaning  of, 
281-83. 

Genius,  249. 

God,  transcendent  glory  of, 
15,  16;  our  knowledge  of, 
provisional,  22;  sense  of, 
25;  how  sense  of,  becomes 
distinct  in  life,  26-31;  the 
good  the  path  to,  30; 
Plato's,  32;  Aristotle's,  33; 
no  place  for,  in  Buddhism, 
35,  36;  mystery  of,  50;  is 
he  personal?  55;  as  an  in- 
dividual and  as  infinite,  55, 
56;  personality  in,  55,  59; 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity, 


an  attempt  to  combine  the 
two  views  of,  56;  assertion 
of,  against  humanity,  56- 
58;  extremes  of  the  indi- 
vidualistic view  of,  58,  59; 
way  of  combining  the  two 
ideas  of,  59 ;  limited  by  per- 
sonality, 59,  60;  moral  ab- 
soluteness of,  60,  61;  cer- 
tain religious  experiences 
dependent  upon  reality  of 
personality  in,  70-72;  imi- 
tation of,  71;  and  the 
103d  Psalm,  72 ;  approached 
through  the  nature  of  man, 
82 ;  how  select  the  principle 
whereby  to  get  at,  83-85; 
absolute  love  of,  is  the  as- 
sumption of  Christian  faith, 
86;  names  by  which  he  is 
known,  90 ;  what  is  meant  by 
Fatherhood  in,  90-96;  the 
Eternal  Idealist,  92,  200; 
obligation  of,  to  mankind, 
92-94;  essentiality  of  men 
to,  94,  95;  goodness  of,  can 
be  recognized,  96;  grounds 
for  belief  in  love  of,  97-105; 
doctrine  of  Fatherhood  in, 
a  doctrine  of  faith,  107; 
way  of  finding  the  living, 
115-17;  human  hospitality 
toward,  118-24;  the  great- 
est thought  that  ever  en- 
tered the  human  mind, 
128;  beginning  of  faith  in, 
200;  with  a  programme  in 
this  world,  200;  known  by 
the  Idealist  as  the  driving 
power  of  his  being,  200, 
201;  faith  in,  our  ultimate 
confidence,  274;  the  one 
restriction,  he  cannot  con- 
tradict himself,  336.  See 
Infinite. 
Good,  the,  world  of  men  is  in 
quest   of,   vii,   41,   42,   60; 


INDEX 


349 


idea  of,  leads  to  freedom  and 
hope,  vii,  viii;  the  path  to 
God,  30;  is  satisfaction,  30, 
31;  in  Plato's  "Republic," 
32;  in  Aristotle's  "Ethics," 
32,  33;  of  Buddhism,  35;  of 
Christianity,  37;  evil  made 
a,  42;  two  kinds  of,  of  illu- 
sion and  of  reality,  44,  45; 
education  as  to  nature  of 
essential,  47;  idea  of,  as 
sole  final  interpretation 
of  man's  life,  47;  lyric  on 
quest  of,  49;  the  object  of 
all  impulse,  238;  the  ap- 
parent and  the  essential, 
239,  240;  man's  ideals  unite 
in  vision  of  highest,  251; 
form  of  highest,  is  freedom, 
251;  faith  in  the  ultimate 
triumph  of,  255;  attitude  of 
Jesus  toward  evil  and,  257; 
often  appears  as  evil,  266, 
267 ;  ultimately  is  seen  to  be 
good,  267,  268;  moral  life  of 
man  began  through  experi- 
ence of  evil  and,  268. 

Goodness  of  the  Deity,  per- 
fect, is  the  assumption  of 
Christian  faith,  86. 

Gordon,  Dr.  A.  J.,  death, 
261. 

Gordon,  Dr.  George  A.,  life 
enlightened  and  re-inforced 
by  his  father's  mind,  119, 
120;  story  of  his  friend  who 
studied  the  life  of  Jesus, 
165-69;  personal  reminis- 
cences, 308-10. 

Grant,  U.  S.,  262,  269. 

Greek  literature  and  histori- 
cal criticism,  137,  138. 

Green,  Thomas  Hill,  141. 

Habitual  mental  action,  52. 

Hades,  177,  178. 

Harmony  of  human  life,  282. 


Harnack,  Adolf,  his  definition 
of  religion,  36. 

Heart,  the  organ  of  closest 
contact  with  universal  Be- 
ing, 186,  187. 

Heaven  and  hell,  ideals,  trans- 
mutations of,  177-79. 

Hegel,  58,  140,  281,  283,  319. 

Hegelians  of  1874-1894,  141. 

Hell  and  heaven,  ideals, 
transmutations  of,  177-79. 

Hero  worship,  273. 

Heterodoxies,  unsatisfactory, 
5. 

Hieroglyph,  of  written  lan- 
guage, 122 ;  of  the  universe, 
122. 

Historic  reality,  of  Jesus,  134, 
148-71 ;  of  the  past,  how  be 
sure  of  it,  145,  148;  of  im- 
portant events  and  persons 
only  that  are  of  interest, 
147;  of  Socrates,  149-55. 

Historical  criticism,  137-40; 
itself  needs  criticism,  139, 
144;  imitation  in,  142-45; 
destructive  in  religion,  143. 

Holy  Ghost,  fellowship  of  the, 
343. 

Homer,  invocation  of  the 
"Odyssey,"  205;  influence 
of  nature  upon,  314;  image 
of  the  Infinite  found  in,  318. 

Hope,  an  evidence  of  God's 
love,  102-05;  goes  when  the 
ideal  dies,  173,  174. 

Hospitality,  one  of  the  great- 
est of  the  intellectual  vir- 
tues, 112;  mental,  double 
character  of,  112,  113;  hu- 
man, toward  the  Infinite 
Mind,  118-24;  toward  God, 
128;  toward  the  endeavor 
of  Jesus,  the  mood  only  of 
elect  spirits,  130;  to  the 
world  of  thought,  needed, 
140. 


350 


INDEX 


Human  society,  insignificance 
of,  20,  21. 

Human  world,  reducible  to 
four  great  orders  of  experi- 
ence, 182;  man  inspirable 
in  presence  of,  212,  217-21. 

Humanist,  the,  212-21. 

Humanity,  24,  25;  pageant  of, 
27;  beginning  of,  in  the 
truth  of  the  ideal,  198,  199. 

Hume,  David,  313. 

Hymn,  quoted,  58,  92. 

Idea,  substitution  of,  for  ac- 
tion, a  source  of  despair,  259. 

Ideal,  moral,  172-202;  pas- 
sion for  the,  174;  expressed 
in  death  of  Jesus,  transmu- 
tation of,  175-77;  fidelity 
to,  188;  the  beginning  of  our 
humanity  is  in  the  truth 
of,  198,  199;  of  unity,  250; 
of  freedom,  253;  of  King- 
dom of  God,  253. 

Idealism,  German,  141. 

Ideals,  173,  174;  indestructi- 
bility of,  175;  heaven  and 
hell,  177;  arising  from  the 
human  relations  as  their 
meaning,  182,  183;  of  Je- 
sus, 199;  man  a  being  of, 
250,  251;  unite  in  vision  of 
highest  good,  251. 

Ideas,  inevitableness  of,  7,  8; 
misgivings  as  to,  8,  9 ;  time- 
attested,  10;  false,  11. 

Imagination,  99. 

Imitation,  of  God,  71;  in  phi- 
losophy, 140;  in  historical 
criticism,  142-45. 

Immortality,  assurance  of, 
95;  a  present  possession, 
317;  primary  ground  of 
faith  in,  320,  321 ;  faith  in, 
supports  itself  from  in- 
stinct, from  reason,  and 
from   Christian  experience 


and  insight,  321-34;  de- 
pends on  God's  will,  337, 
338;  intimations  of,  in 
God's  will  in  the  life  of  the 
soul,  339;  bearing  of  love 
on,  340;  bearing  of  duty  on, 
341 ;  bearing  of  redemption 
on,  341-43. 

Individuality,  compatible 
with  a  social  whole,  317. 

Inevitableness,  of  natural 
law,  6;  of  great  poetry,  6,  7; 
of  music,  painting,  sculp- 
ture, building,  7;  of  certain 
ideas  of  faith,  7,  8. 

Infinite,  the,  sense  of,  25;  as- 
surance of  reality  of,  25; 
how  sense  of,  becomes  dis- 
tinct in  our  life,  26-31;  in 
religious  experience,  69,  70; 
all  views  of,  are  interpreta- 
tions, 82 ;  true  hospitality  is 
from  the  finite  to,  122;  man 
inspirable  in  presence  of, 
212,  222-25;  the  assump- 
tion that  it  is  a  soul,  227- 
29 ;  influence  of,  on  our  life, 
311-21;  influence  of,  on 
poets,  314;  influence  of,  on 
men  of  religion,  314,  315; 
essential  to  the  soul,  316; 
mystery,  335, 336.  See  God. 

Insights,  constellation  of,  3. 

Insincerity,  262-64. 

Inspiration,  definition  of,  203; 
in  the  presence  of  the  Infi- 
nite, causes  of  unbelief  in, 
207-09;  the  result  of  envi- 
ronment and  susceptibility, 
209-11;  reciprocity  and, 
211 ;  source  of,  the  object  of 
thought,  212;  three  types 
of,  212-25;  origin  of  high 
scientific  discovery,  great 
art,  and  true  religion,  226; 
as  to  the  form  which  is 
standard,  226. 


INDEX 


351 


Instinct,  faith  in  immortality- 
supports  itself  from,  321- 
24. 

Instinctive  mental  life,  52. 

Instinctive  reason,  assurance 
given  by,  25. 

Instincts,  255. 

Interpretation  of  sign-lan- 
guage of  personal  mind, 
115,  122. 

Interpretations,  views  of  the 
Infinite  are  of  the  nature  of, 
82;  are  not  necessarily 
arbitrary,  83. 

Intuitions  of  the  mind,  God 
lives  in,  118. 

Invocation,  personal,  form  of 
hospitality  toward  God, 
119. 

Invocations  of  the  poets, 
205-07. 

Isaiah,  Cheyne's  edition  of, 
143,  144;  possessed  of  the 
Eternal,  204. 

James,  William,  140,  316. 

Jesus,  tragedy  of  history  in 
the  experience  of,  101 ;  lived 
out  of  the  sense  of  his  Fa- 
ther, 105;  disciples  were 
host  to  mind  of,  121;  invo- 
cation of  mind  of,  121,  122; 
the  endeavor  of,  130;  the 
historic  reality  of,  134, 148- 
61 ;  and  historical  criticism, 
143;  and  Socrates,  resem- 
blances between,  148;  per- 
sonal vision  of,  162-70;  his 
warning  as  to  way  of  ap- 
proaching the  universal 
meaning  of  his  soul,  171; 
death  of,  175-77;  beginning 
of  faith  in,  199;  the  Sover- 
eign Idealist,  199;  the  child 
of  the  Infinite,  223;  temp- 
tation of,  249;  attitude  of, 
toward  conflict  of  good  and 


evil,  257;  a  new  apprecia- 
tion of  the  value  of,  needed, 
272;  the  greatest  hero,  274; 
and  his  redeeming  passion, 
286;  life  of,  lived  in  God, 
makes  him  prophet  of  im- 
mortality, 320;  meaning  of 
his  life,  329;  says  little 
about  the  future  world, 
330;  his  teaching  in  regard 
to  the  future  world,  331-33; 
tie  sovereign  thing  in  lifo 
according  to,  333. 

Job,  God's  love  of  man  shown 
by  his  words,  100. 

Jonson,  Ben,  275. 

Josephus,  evidence  of,  on 
Jesus,  157. 

Judgments,  men's,  forces  in 
the  worth  of  existence,  99. 

Kant,  Immanuel,  306,  319. 

Keats,  John,  quoted,  227. 

Kipling,  Rudyard,  quoted,  5, 
244. 

Knowledge,  vagueness  pres- 
ent in  beginnings  of,  126-28. 

Leibnitz,  319. 

Life,  self-movement  and  sen- 
sibility the  signs  of,  51; 
seems  an  evidence  of  the 
love  of  God,  97;  is  a  good, 
97,  266;  human,  incomplete 
at  its  beginning,  99 ;  wheth- 
er it  is  not  death,  and  death 
life,  135;  unfulfilled  desire 
the  moving  energy  in,  174; 
harmony  of,  282;  influence 
of  the  dead  upon,  307-11, 
343;  influence  of  the  unseen 
universe  upon,  311-21;  the 
primary  mystery,  335. 

Literature,  great,  reflects 
Eternity,  317,  318. 

Logic,  laws  of,  God  lives  in, 
118. 


352 


INDEX 


Lord's  Prayer,  109,  334. 

Lord's  Supper,  12,  159,  160. 

Lotze,  55. 

Love,  is  the  origin  of  all  crea- 
tive activity,  97,  98;  the 
protest  of,  to  the  naturalis- 
tic error,  234,  235;  its  bear- 
ing on  immortality,  340. 

Love  of  God,  absolute,  is  the 
assumption  of  Christian 
faith,  86;  change  of  opin- 
ions due  to,  88 ;  grounds  for 
belief  in,  97-105. 

Lucretius,  318,  319. 

Luther,  Martin,  258. 

Lyceum,  the,  151. 

Man,  the  Infinite  approached 
through  the  nature  of,  82; 
the  true,  is  a  moral  idealist, 
91;  essentiality  of,  to  God, 
94,  95;  love  of,  for  his  off- 
spring, 98;  is  he  an  individ- 
ualist or  by  nature  social? 
114;  is  inspirable,  211-25; 
the  dualism  in,  230-54;  the 
error  that  he'  is  wholly 
animal,  232-36 ;  the  error  of 
a  one-sided  spirituality  in, 
236-38;  a  being  of  ideals, 
250,  251;  exaltation  of,  in 
Plato's  "Republic,"  256; 
moral  life  of,  began  through 
experience  of  good  and  evil, 
268. 

Matheson,  hymn  of,  81. 

Memory,  52-55,  99. 

Mental  action,  habitual,  52; 
of  animals,  53. 

Mill,  J.  S.,  84,  141,  154. 

Milton,  John,  his  Satan,  43; 
quoted.  111,  113;  invoca- 
tion of,  206;  the  Infinite  in, 
318. 

Mind,  appears  in  the  world  as 
soon    as   life   appears,    51; 

,    presence    of,    in    animals, 


51;  hospitality  of,  111-13; 
knowledge  of  mind  by,  113; 
sense  of  reality  the  final  law 
of,  124-26;  in  two  systems 
of  philosophy,  132,  133; 
human  nature  is  great  with 
immanent,  183,  184;  pos- 
sessed by  its  object,  203-05. 

Misgivings  as  to  ideas  of 
faith,  8,  9. 

Moody,  Dwight  L.,  272. 

Moral  despair,  258-65. 

Moral  evil.   See  Evil. 

Moral  ideal,  172-202;  de- 
scribed, 172;  indestructibil- 
ity of,  172,  174;  the  mys- 
tery of,  181,  182;  the  second 
order  of  experience,  183; 
two  prophets  of,  Paul  and 
Tennyson,  188-98. 

Moral  law,  emergence  of, 
116. 

Moral  life,  the,  a  life  ordained 
by  nature,  187. 

Moral  reason,  God  lives  in, 
118. 

Moral  weakness,  264,  265. 

Music,  inevitable,  7;  creative 
activity  in,  has  love  as  its 
origin,  97;  and  speech,  301. 

Mystery,  the  great,  viewed  in 
the  afternoon  of  life,  xi; 
meaning  of,  12,  305;  of  life, 
14;  of  God,  50,  70;  of  na- 
ture, 67,  68;  of  our  spiritual 
experience,  69;  of  redemp- 
tion, 277-304;  of  the  end, 
305-43;  of  birth,  306,  336, 
337;  life  the  primary,  335; 
the  Infinite,  335,  336. 

Mysticism,  124. 

Naomi  and  Ruth,  114,  115. 
Natural    law,    inevitableness 

of,  6. 
Naturalist,  the,  212. 
Naturalistic  error,  the,  232. 


INDEX 


353 


Nature,  world  of,  24 ;  pageant 
of,  27;  the  mystery  of,  67, 
68;  extent  of  our  knowledge 
of,  68,  69;  human,  great 
with  immanent  mind,  183; 
man  inspirable  in  presence 
of,  212-17;  significant  to 
the  poet,  314;  as  seen  by 
the  physicist,  325,  326. 

New  Testament,  the,  158, 
159,  319. 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  186,  204, 
213. 

Nicene  Creed,  250,  251. 

Nile,  the,  323. 

Odyssey,  the,  invocation  of, 

205. 
Omar    Khayyam,    quotation 

from,  177. 
One-sided    spirituality,    236, 

237. 
One-sided  thinker,  the,  56. 
Originality  begins  in  feeling, 

186. 
Orion,  214,  215. 
Orthodoxies,  unsatisfactory ,  5. 

Painting,  inevitable,  7;  crea- 
tive activity  in,  has  love  as 
its  origin,  97,  98. 

Pantheism,  84. 

Parable  of  Jesus,  178. 

Parable  of  the  Lost  Son,  270, 
271. 

Parables  of  the  Mustard  Seed 
and  the  Leaven,  257. 

Parent,  influence  of  spirit  of, 
on  son,  118-20. 

Park,  Prof.  Edwards  A.,  13. 

Paul,  his  vision,  135,  136;  his 
study  of  Jesus,  169,  170; 
prophet  of  the  moral  ideal, 
the  experience  of,  188-92; 
his  words,  "I  have  kept 
the  faith,"  188,  201,  202; 
quoted,    211;   pressing   to- 


ward the  goal,  241;  his 
comment,  "hindered  hith- 
erto," 253;  his  despairing 
cry,  258;  and  the  mystery 
of  redemption,  278,  279. 

Perfection  of  the  Deity,  oper- 
ation of  the  principle  of,  87. 

Permanent,  the,  28. 

Personal  character,  230,  246. 

Personality,  in  man,  53-55;  in 
God,  55,  59;  limits  God,  59, 
60;  in  religious  experience, 
62,  63;  certain  religious 
experiences  dependent  up- 
on God's,  70-72;  accentua- 
tion of,  in  deep  religious 
experience,  80,  81;  of  the 
Infinite,  227-29. 

Pessimists,  suicide  the  logical 
programme  for,  97,  266. 

Philosophy,  a  critique  upon 
experience,  26;  and  religion, 
when  great  are  seldom  at 
variance,  131;  that  reduces 
mind  to  the  position  of 
an  incident,  132,  133;  that 
discovers  that  mind  is  ulti- 
mate and  eternal,  133;  the 
imitative  mood  in,  broken, 
140;  and  hope,  173;  the 
Infinite  in,  318,  319. 

Plato,  says  that  philosophy  is 
the  child  of  wonder,  14;  on 
the  evanescent  and  the  per- 
manent, 27;  the  "Repub- 
lic," 31,  32,  34,  35,  256;  on 
God,  71;  on  Fatherhood  in 
God,  108;  on  the  man  who 
lives  in  the  vision  of  the 
Absolute,  129,  130;  disciple 
of  Socrates,  151;  a  witness 
to  the  reality  of  Socrates, 
154 ;  his  portrait  of  Socrates, 
164;  his  description  of  the 
poet,  203 ;  an  example  of  his 
own  definition,  204;  his  cry 
for  a  nobler  education,  271; 


354 


INDEX 


eternity  in  the  philosophy 
of,  318;  his  "Phaedo,"  327- 
29,  338. 

Poetry,  great,  inevitableness 
of,  6,  7;  creative  activity  in, 
has  love  as  its  origin,  97,  98; 
influence  of  nature  and  the 
Infinite  upon,  314. 

Pope,  Alexander,  quoted,  225. 

Prayer,  316. 

Principles,  whereby  the  Infi- 
nite is  interpreted,  82,  83; 
the  selection  of,  as  way  to 
the  Infinite,  83-85;  the  test 
of,  85,  86;  a  fundamental 
principle  necessary,  86. 

Prophet,  office  of,  127,  128;  of 
the  eternal,  212,  223-25. 

Prophets,  the,  their  sense  of 
the  tragedy  of  existence, 
256,  257. 

Psalm,  103d,  classical  expres- 
sion of  great  religion,  72; 
139th,  illustrative  of  the 
indwelling  of  God,  118,  119. 

"Punch,"  the  caricature  of 
Roosevelt  in,  153,  154;  joke 
from,  261. 

Ransom  as  explanation  of 
death  of  Jesus,  175. 

Reality,  alone  judge  in  the 
evening  of  life,  x;  and  ap- 
pearance, 60;  sense  of,  the 
final  intellectual  power, 
124-26;  at  first  vague,  126- 
28;  historic,  of  Jesus,  134, 
148-71;  meanings  of,  134; 
historic,  of  the  past,  how  to 
be  sure  of,  145,  148;  his- 
toric, of  important  events 
and  persons  only  that  are  of 
interest,  147;  historic,  of 
Socrates,  149-55;  universal, 
is  the  infinite  thing,  184-86. 

Reason,  instinctive,  assurance 
given  by,  25;  the  youngest 


in  the  psychic  family,  184- 
86;  faith  in  immortality 
supports  itself  from,  321, 
322,  324-29. 

Reasons  not  to  be  demanded 
for  everything,  125. 

Reciprocity,  211,  225. 

Redeeming  passion  in  Jesus 
and  in  God,  176. 

Redemption,  mystery  of ,  277- 
304;  two  aspects  of  mys- 
tery, 277-80;  and  educa- 
tion, mutually  complemen- 
tary ideas,  283,  284;  disuse 
of  idea  of,  in  Church,  284; 
and  education,  ideas  pres- 
ent in  Browning's  "Saul," 
284,  287-304;  wide  field 
occupied  by,  outside  the 
Church,  284-86;  Jesus  and 
his  mission  of,  286;  Europe 
in  need  of,  today,  287;  its 
bearing  on  immortality, 
341-43. 

Relations,  human,  182. 

Religion,  great,  sets  the  hu- 
man soul  in  universal  rela- 
tions, 21;  great,  the  mirror 
of  the  law  of  man's  spirit 
and  the  order  of  God's 
moral  being,  37;  power  of,  is 
in  insight  and  concreteness, 
39,  40;  can  last  only  by  re- 
newal in  personal  experi- 
ence, 40;  great,  its  eyes 
always  open,  40,  41 ;  great, 
the  opportunity  of,  45; 
Christian,  admits  no  meta- 
physical but  holds  to  a 
moral  Absolute,  60;  the 
duality  of,  61-63,  76;  is  the 
highest  friendship,  64;  the 
beliefs  and  ideas  of,  65-67; 
imitation  the  method  of 
great,  71;  the  beatitude  of, 
is  to  get  beyond  the  human 
point  of  view,  72 ;  lifts  us  to 


INDEX 


355 


a  height  whence  to  see 
God's  majesty,  73;  and  art, 
difference  between,  78;  God 
and  man  meet  in  great,  79, 
80;  and  philosophy,  when 
great  are  seldom  at  vari- 
ance, 131;  and  historical 
criticism,  138,  139,  143-45; 
and  hope,  173;  insight  into 
the  heart  of  an  ever-present 
reality,  187;  as  result  of 
inspiration,  212,  222-25, 
227-29;  great,  basal  idea  in, 
225,  270;  the  protest  of,  to 
the  naturalistic  error,  235, 

^  236;  the  ideal  of,  253;  the 
union  of  two  worlds,  316. 

Religious  experience,  process 
of,  61-63;  of  ordinary  mor- 
tals, 63 ;  great,  meaning  of, 
63,  64;  mystery,  69;  and 
103d  Psalm,  72;  a  mind 
above  the  world  obtained 
by,  73;  accentuation  of 
personality  in,  80,  81;  once 
considered  necessary  to 
acceptance  by  God,  88; 
teacher  of  religion  should 
be  a  creator  of  a  great,  89. 

Religious  ideal, dualism  in  man 
accentuated  by,  230-32. 

Religious  teachers,  what  we 
have  a  right  to  demand  of 
them,  88,  89. 

Return  of  the  exiles  from 
Babylon,  lyric  on,  has  be- 
come symbolic,  179-81. 

Right,  the  idea  of,  240,  241. 

River  of  time,  ways  of  cross- 
ing, 1-5. 

Roosevelt,  Colonel,  caricature 
of,  in  "Punch,"  153. 

Rotation  of  the  earth,  anec- 
dote of  the  man  who  had 
disproved,  146. 

Royce,  Josiah,  140. 

Ruth  and  Naomi,  114,  115. 


Sainthood,  237. 

Sane  scholars,  160,  161. 

Satisfaction,  is  the  good,  30, 
31;  according  to  Plato  and 
Aristotle,  32-35;  in  Chris- 
tianity, 37;  the  quest  of, 
41,  42. 

Saul,  156;  Browning's  poem 
on,  284,  287-304. 

Sceptics,  the,  151. 

Schelling,  Friedrich  von,  58. 

Science,  and  ideals,  173;  in- 
spired by  truth  of  nature, 
214,  226. 

Scotland,  1,  9. 

Scottish  anecdote,  111. 

Sculpture,  inevitable,  7;  cre- 
ative activity  in,  has  love 
as  its  origin,  97,  98. 

Self,  feeling  of,  24. 

Self-movement  and  sensibil- 
ity the  signs  of  life,  51. 

Senses,  the,  99. 

Sensibility  and  self-move- 
ment the  signs  of  life,  51. 

Shakespeare,  William,  the 
greatest  humanist,  217- 
19. 

Shelley,  P.  B.,  quoted,  175, 
215-17. 

Sherman,  W.  T.,  269. 

Sign-language,  114-17. 

Sirius,  214,  215. 

Sisyphus,  myth  of,  44. 

Smith,  Adam,  313. 

Socrates,  and  Jesus,  resem- 
blances between,  148;  his- 
toric reality  of,  149-55; 
disciples  of,  150,  151;  three 
portraits  of,  164;  death  of, 
252,  328;  his  argument  on 
death,  326-29. 

Solipsism,  110. 

Solipsists,  110,  120. 

Sophocles,  influence  of  nature 
upon,  314;  fragment  quot- 
ed. 338. 


356 


INDEX 


Soul,  of  the  universe  and  of 
man,  kindred,  225;  the 
assumption  of  the  Infinite 
as,  228,  229;  human,  has 
grown  into  God,  320. 

Speech  and  music,  301. 

Spinoza,  57,  58,  79,  319. 

Spirituality,  one-sided,  236, 
237. 

Standards,  traditional,  count 
for  little  when  the  obliga- 
tion is  to  reality,  x. 

Stephen,  the  first  martyr,  156. 

Stevenson,  R.  L.,  quoted, 
342,  343. 

Stoics,  the,  151,  318. 

Storrs,  Dr.  R.  S.,  13. 

Stowe,  H.  B.,  quoted,  19. 

Substitution  as  explanation 
of  the  death  of  Jesus,  176. 

Suicide,  97,  266. 

Swift,  Jonathan,  quoted,  231. 

Tacitus,     evidence     of,     on 

Jesus,  158. 
Tailor,  bewildered,  anecdote 

of  the,  126. 
Tantalus,  myth  of,  44. 
Teachers,  religious,  what  we 

have  a  right  to  demand  of 

them,  88,  89. 
Temptation,     247,     248;     of 

Jesus,  249. 
Tennyson,  Lord,  quoted,  57; 

prophet  of  the  moral  ideal, 

188,   192-98;  "Merlin  and 

the  Gleam"   quoted,    194- 

98;  incident  told  to,  on  his 

death  bed,  235 ;  the  Infinite 

in,  318. 
Tests  of   truth  of   principles 

for  arriving  at  the  Infinite, 

85,  88,  89. 
Theism  of  J.  S.  Mill,  84. 
Thomson,  James,  quoted,  77; 

the  error  of  his  melancholy, 
,    78. 


Title  of  book,  6,  8,  10,  12-15. 
Tragedy  of  the  worid,  power 

of   escape   from,    given   to 

man,  100-02. 
Trinity,  doctrine  of  the,  56. 
Truth,  the  protest  of,  to  the 

naturalistic  error,  233,  234. 

Unfulfilled  desire,  the  moving 
energy  in  life,  174. 

Unity  with  the  Supreme  Be- 
ing, 62-64. 

Universe,  embodied  thought, 
28,  29;  means  to  give  light, 
48. 

Unseen  universe,  influence  of, 
on  our  life,  311-21. 

Violin,  story  of  the  re-made, 

279,  280. 
Virgil,  invocation  of,  206. 
Visions,  135-37. 

Warp  and  woof,  23,  24. 

Watts,  Isaac,  quoted,  18. 

Weakness,  moral,  264,  265. 

Webster,  Daniel,  quoted,  6; 
and  the  tailor,  anecdote  of, 
126;  his  eulogy  on  Massa- 
chusetts quoted,  160. 

Weight  of  cattle,  calculating,  9. 

Wesley,  Charles,  quoted,  22. 

Will  to  power,  94,  95. 

Wise  man,  the,  and  the  un- 
wise, 46. 

Wonder,  14. 

Wordsworth.William,  quoted, 
xiv,  184,  211. 

World-mind,  Divine,  132. 

Worship,  given  as  a  tribute  to 
the  Infinite  soul,  74-76;  is 
not  apostrophe,  74. 

Worth,  meaning  of,  18. 

Xenophon,  and  Socrates,  151," 
152;  his  portrait  of  So- 
crates, 164. 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .    S    .    A 


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1    1012  01246  9443 


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